Sunset Shimmer and her Sidekick: long live the princess
by DEATHxCHAN
Summary: Instead of stealing the Element of Magic, Sunset Shimmer finds yet another human world and a human with strange powers. She pulls both into Equestria, where he turns into a Pegasus with new powers. Now both set out to a journey in order for Sunset to become an alicorn princess. Will it work? [Pairings undecided; taking suggestions; Cover art by KHTwilightSparkle from deviantart]
1. Chapter 1

**Let's get things started**

_**Arc's POV**_

I always found life dull and boring and that's the way I planned on living. But for all the little screw ups and good things I did in my life, Karma had something special prepared for me. Either that or it was a screw up in evolution.

How about we start on my last day on earth, shall we? What I look like? I'll tell if it gets important sometime, but you don't need to know now.

Back on earth, I used to work in a bureau for the bakery I took part time during my school days. Anyways, it had been my day off and I happened to be eating in my favorite (and the only one in town) Japanese restaurant. I just got my second bowl of rice, when that girl came in.

I was used to meeting a few strange people, especially in my favorite restaurant, so I shrugged her off pretty quickly as a cosplayer. She had red, yellow hair, green-blue almost turquoise eyes, wore a pink shirt with a red, yellow sun on it, a black jacket, short orange trousers with a pink and a yellow stripe on it and black leather boots that covered half of the second half of her legs and they had pink color on them.

Should I have known? Probably, but I didn't really paid much attention. My days as being all crazy, just so I and people around me had fun (or were became weird out) were over after an argument between me and my father as to why I didn't chose to study harder in order to get a really well paid job. We fought, words were spoken, I left my old hometown with the money I saved up.

I don't regret it. But things just weren't the same.

"One Oyakodon and a cola." The girl placed herself next to me, since it was the only place available. I made her some space, by putting my stuff that had been lying on the counter in my pockets and resumed eating.

I finished 20 minutes later, used the bathroom upstairs and walked outside. I paid in advance plus tip. Incidentally the other girl finished too and paid her bill. We got both outside at the same time and even walked down the same way, which wasn't surprising. We were downtown and I was headed for the bus station near the train station. It was practically where all busses stopped.

I also wasn't concerned that she stepped into the same bus as I did, because I lived near the university and she looked like a university student to me. It got a little weird when she stepped out the same station as I did, but then again I only lived in the neighborhood for six months.

I picked out my keys and got into the house I lived. I should mention I was listening to my mp3 the entire time, so I didn't notice someone pushing the door open downstairs before it slammed shut.^

I yawned when I entered my apartment and stupidly forgot to close the door immediately. Wouldn't have made much difference anyway on the long run. I got off my shoes and walked into the living room, turning on the TV and collapsed on the couch.

Remember the stupidly left open door? Well after the news were over, I got up and wanted to get me something to drink, only that a certain strange haired girl came out of my room, slammed me against the door and held a knife against my neck.

"What the...?!"

"Surprised?" she asked.

My heart seemed to race a mile a minute. Hey it's not every day someone threatens to take your life. "I don't have much money, not even on my bank account." I explained as calmly as I could.

"Hmph, I'm not after your money. I'm here for a proposal."

"Okay? Why the knife?"

She put her knife away, but still pressed me against the wall. "Proposal?" I asked. "I think I should make something clear." Instead of saying something she snapped with her finger. I raised an eyebrow in confusion, when suddenly one of my books came flying to me, surrounded by green light.

"The hell?" I whispered in disbelief. I took another look over the girl who finally let go of me and caught my book. She threw it away half heartily. I looked for a few seconds at the sun on her shirt when it dawned to me. I just couldn't belief it.

"Did you put something in my drink while I wasn't looking?" I asked. She in response rolled her eyes and gave me a good smack over my head. "OW!"

"No you idiot. I am Sunset Shimmer. Or do I need to demonstrate you my more violent spells?" she asked already annoyed.

"Enope." Was my response. "Good."

She nodded and took out her knife again, throwing it into the wall next to me. I gulped as I slowly looked at the thing. "Hey, get your ass moving and get me a soda."

I nodded and got her and myself a can. I found her lying on my couch, arms crossed behind her head. I gave her the soda and placed myself on a chair.

"Okay, you're probably asking yourself: 'Why would THE Sunset Shimmer suddenly appear in an apartment of a no name human in the so called 'real world', when she's supposed to be in a high school version of the castle in Canterlot?'"

I only nodded and took a good sip. I considered making myself some strong coffee.

"The answer is simple: I found out I still could cast magic after going through the mirror, just I needed to put a lot more effort into it. I was trying a spell I remembered reading and as I already said I needed to put a lot more effort into it. Long story short, I used too much energy and ended up here.

I found out about this TV-show and that I could use my magic here like in Equestria. Now speaking of, I found a way back to Equestria, I'm not going to tell you how, as it would take too long to explain. My goal is to become a princess as you know and I discovered something interesting."

She looked directly into my eyes. It unnerved her. She looked at me the way I would look when someone would give me an AK-47 as a birthday present.

"You have magic inside you. Strange magic and I want it."

"Alright~..." I emptied my can. "Considering you didn't already took it out of me suggests you can't for whatever reason and this 'proposal' is the stereotypical help me and I give you power villain proposal."

"At least you seem to have some brain." she threw her can away, splattering the rest of the liquid on the ground.

"Let's say for argument's sake I'll say yes. What would stop me in betraying you? You don't trust anyone at all, I know that."

"I have my ways and as long as you don't do that, there's nothing you've to be afraid off."

"I don't like the sound of that..."

I thought over of what she said. There was not information to go on what she said, so I had to go on what I knew about her from the movie (I only watched one time, because I didn't like it). I recalled her personality, her change at the end of the movie and the theories from the internet forums.

"You didn't try to steal the element of magic, did you?"

"No."

...

"You want to become an alicorn and nothing more?"

"What's there more to have?" she asked.

"Know what" I slammed my hands on the table and stood up "my life is screwed up and you got me curious enough to tag along. Besides, I finally could get my chance to troll Celestia."

"Are you serious?"

"Just wait and see. But you probably want to avoid her, right boss?"

She got off from my couch and looked at me seriously. "Leave the thinking part to me. You only follow my orders. So listen up: your magic, whatever it is, will most likely only awaken when we enter Equestria. I'll need some time and moreover SILENCE to prepare the teleportation spell. So sit down and just be quiet."

She stood there, eyes closed and her magical aura surrounding herself. I placed myself on the couch, shaking my head. _What have I gotten myself into? _I thought. Watching Sunset was getting boring over some time, even if there was real magic at work here.

I occupied myself with playing the most annoying and at the same time enjoyable game: candy crush. I didn't know how much time past, when it was as if there was a sudden weight all over my body. The aura was surrounding me too now. Sunset opened her eyes and looked at me. "Here goes."

I blacked out.

XIII

When I woke up, I noticed immediately that I was lying in the grass. "Shit just got real, alright. Damn my head..." I muttered. Opening my eyes, I found myself in some kind of plain. Sunset quickly came into my view. She was in her pony form.

"Finally awake? Took you long enough."

"Oh man..." I tried to get up, but fell down immediately afterwards. I had hooves and four legs instead of two and two arms. So this wasn't a dream. My back felt kind of strange too, like there actually was something.

"I should have considered that." Sunset muttered most likely more to herself. She bit my mane and pulled me up forcefully. I was shaking a little, but managed to stand. "Was that the same for you, when you first turned human?" I asked.

She ignored my question and instead gave me instructions. "When you can stand on your own, try to go to the river over there, slowly if you have to." From the way she was saying this, she preferred it if it went faster, but accepted the fact I needed to get used to this new body.

"Alright."

I tried to remember the exercise during PE. I sucked at it, but remembering how I did it as a human, I just needed to copy it from my memories. I did a lot better than I thought I would and only stumbled a few times. I was still pretty slow.

Looking at the river I could see my reflection: white eyes, blonde mane and white fur. "Talk about imagination." I deadpanned. I was a pegasus by the way. Looking back at my flank, my cutie mark represented a pair of wings.

Sunset looked over me. Her eyes rested on my cutie mark. "Does that mean I'm good at flying?" I asked. She shrugged in response. "I was expecting you to be a unicorn, but I can still feel your magic. Especially in your wings." Her horn lit up and the magic aura was surrounding me once again. Her eyes glowed in the same way for several seconds, before turning back, stopping the 'scan'.

"You should have access to it now."

"Straight to business huh? Thing is, I have no idea how to activate this 'special magic' in my wings. Hell, I don't even know how to use them." I flapped with my wings a little, looking at them with a raised eyebrow.

"A pegasus who can't fly. Great, just great." Sunset looked at me like I was a bad joke. "I can help you with your magic though. Close your eyes." I did so. "And now clear your head. Focus on your magic. Think of it like a butterfly you want to catch. A butterfly that is emitted in light and all you have is your hands..."

The rest of what she said was blocked out. It wasn't really a butterfly, but in front of my inner eye I saw a feather flying in midair. _Come here, come here._

It was way harder than it sounds. Finding it wasn't a problem, catching was. I didn't notice how the time flew by or that I started sweating. "Shit! Almost had it..." I growled out loud at some point. I was standing there for hours, getting closer to it very slowly.

XIII

"GOTSCHA!" I exclaimed after hours, immediately collapsing with a white aura surrounding my body. It was strongest around my wings.

By now it was dark already and Sunset lit up a fire. I collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily and sweating bullets. Sunset trotted over to me. "Hmph, you did better than I thought. Can you summon it again?" she asked.

I nodded. It's hard to explain as to how I could use magic; it's like a sixth sense. I managed to summon a small aura for like 3 seconds, before I needed to release the magic again. I rolled over to the river, so I could put my mouth inside and drink.

Afterwards I slowly trotted over to the fire Sunset was sitting nearby and collapsed again. "Man, never thought magic would be that exhausting."

Sunset looked over to me, ready to make a comment, when her face suddenly froze.

"...What? Something on my face?"

XIII

_**Sunset's POV**_

"...What? Something on my face?" he asked. He didn't notice? How could he not notice? This was his freaking damn body!

"Look at your back." I said simply. He titled his head in confusion, but followed my instructions. "WHAT THE HELL!?" he exclaimed as he finally noticed how his body had changed.

His mane and tail were in a dark blue, his eyes were turquoise color, his body fur color a light blue and finally his wings: they were made of water. Literally. His cutie mark now looked like them.

The former human walked around like a panicked animal, always looking at the one or other body part of his. I could tell this was going to be a long night.

XIII

After I managed to calm him down, we both rested for the night, exhausted after channeling so much magic. I was the first one to wake up. The pegaus was still in his...water form? That reminded me, I still didn't know his name and he also needed a pony name.

Celestia raised her sun until it was at its highest position. Celestia...soon she would see my true potential. I looked over to the pegasus as he was blinking, because of the sun shining directly into his eyes.

He looked over to his back. "So...that wasn't a dream." he concluded. It was only natural for him to say this. I walked over to him and inspected his wings by touching them. My hoof got wet.

"It's water alright." I looked over to him. "I never caught your name."

"Oh right. The name's Chris Hammond." he introduced himself. "You still need a pony name. And then we have to find a way to undo this."

"Jeez, are you always the straight to business type?" he asked in a sarcastic way. He thought about for a few seconds. "How about Arc? My full name could be Wing Arc."

It would do. "Right. So in order to change back, you'll most likely need to channel your magic again. About reversing what you did...you have to figure it out yourself, since it's the first time a pegasus used magic."

"Great." he deadpanned.

He closed his eyes and focused. I sighed and guessed it would take him another half a day to figure it out. And I was getting hungry too. Luck was on my side however as I saw him changing in front of me, but not back to his normal self.

His eyes became ruby red, his mane a darker red, his fur a lighter red and his wings were on freaking fire! On a side note, his cutie mark changed too now, displaying the wings on fire.

"Hey it worked. Oh shit, I'M ON FIRE!"

To sum the following happenings up: he ran around like an idiot, rolled on the ground and finally decided to jump into the river. Which turned out to be a BAD decision, because he lost consciousness. It turned out the opposite element he had on, was his weakness. After some CPR he got up again, a little shaky though. He told me, he just needed to imagine the element and focus for a few seconds. In order to get back to normal, he focused on a feather.

After hitting him over the head for good measures, we walked towards a path I scouted out the previous day and began to wander. Arc's growling stomach reminded me of my own hunger, but at least he didn't complain.

"By the way, do you have any money?" he asked at one point. I simply nodded. "So what's the plan? I mean, it will take us more than a day to make you an alicorn."

_Hmm, I guess I should tell him._

"Equestria is filled with magic, tomes about magic, magic items etc. You catch what we're going to do?"

"That simple?" he asked surprised. "Oh well, I guess we're not only looking into libraries, huh? Some dusty old ruins with forbidden relics? Sounds totally cliché, but could be awesome. As long as nothing gets us killed..." he gulped, but had a stupid grin plastered on his face. Something told me there was more to him, than the introverted, self-centered human I scouted these past few days.

"You still need to learn to fly." I pointed out.

"Oh joy, flying. All of the sudden I wish to be an earth pony."

What have I done? I just should have gown back to Equestria without him. His powers might proof to be useful, but it will totally look suspicious (and stupid for that matter) if ponies see me hanging out with a pegasus, who doesn't know how to fly.

He flapped his wings a few times, but they were never in sync. I certainly didn't know anything about being a pegasus. I could help him with magic, if needed, but that was it. Learning to fly was something he either needed to figure out or I'd simply dumb him.

_I should have thought things more through. _I'd never admit that to anyone, but myself. _Now I'm hungry, I've a pegasus who knows shit about flying and we're in the middle of nowhere. I still have the money from my time in Equestria (being the princes' personal student has its advantages), but it won't-_

"There we go." Arc's sudden statement got me out of my train of thoughts. There was a sign stating that a town called Ponyville was only five miles away behind the hill as it seemed.

"Near Ponyville is the castle of the two sisters. I guess we'll start there?" Arc asked me. "What else is there to do? And don't even start with that whole Friendship is Magic crap."

"I prefer donuts."

...

...

...

"What does donuts have to do with this?" I dreaded asking. Arc snorted and shook his head. "Sorry, it just got the better of me. Now seriously, how long we'll be staying? And what if Celestia pays the place a visit? You know with Twilight and the elements."

As annoying as his questions were, he made some good points.

"We'll simply leave for the castle. Since we'll spend most of the time there anyway. You'll also learn to fly there!"

"Thanks for the reminder..." he muttered. I smacked his head with my hoof. "Let's go. I'm starving."


	2. Chapter 2

**Arriving in Ponyville**

_**Arc's POV**_

As Sunset and I looked over Ponyville, I couldn't help but feel a little dizzy. "Too. Many. Colors." I deadpanned. "Stop whining and get a move on." Sunset ordered and walked ahead. I sighed and followed her down the hill. We were approaching of what seemed to be a farm: Sweet Apple Acres as I realized.

Ignoring the ponies working on the farm, we continued walking a forest of apple trees standing right next to us. The smell of apples seemed to make the hole in my stomach even bigger. I looked over to Sunset, who was still frowning. Ever since I met her 95% of the time I saw on her face was that frown.

"Howdy!" Someone called us. Looking to my left, I saw Applejack waving a hoof at us. Sunset ignored her completely and just walked ahead as if she didn't hear it. I gave AJ an apologetic look and waved back, before catching up with Sunset. I didn't comment on it or told her to at least greet back or anything. She only would get angry and either way I'm not the type who tells others how to behave.

The streets of Ponyville were filled with other ponies, some I recognized as background characters. No one paid us too much attention, but people recognized us as not being from anywhere around. We came across the library.

"So Tirek didn't attack yet." I shuddered. "Am not looking forward in getting my magic stolen."

"You can look forward with me beating him up."

"Someone's confident. Actually, if we're lucky, we could encounter him when he's still weak."

"I can take him on no matter how much power he has."

_Sure you can. _I thought to myself. Sunset walked ahead, ignoring everyone around and focusing on the way ahead. She looked over several signs, until we found one that would lead to a local inn.

"The money won't last forever. How do we get more? Part-time working?"

"I have some ideas." she replied. Hopefully it wouldn't involve something illegal. Heck, I planned on trolling a few princesses, what was I thinking about illegal stuff?

"*GASP*!"

We both turned around towards the sudden exclamation, but the only thing we made out was a pink blur.

"Don't tell me that was..."

"It sure was. But hey, free food."

Sunset facehoofed and shook her head.

XIII

Sunset and I took a room for two. We checked out our room quickly, which had one bath and walked out again. "We're going to eat now and then we'll check out the library as long as we can. You should read up on Equestria history. Belief me, saves us from some awkward situations." She told me.

"Well, I came up with the excuse of being a traveler and coming from a foreign country."

We walked to the basement of the inn and looked over a card what there was to eat. A lot of hay let me tell you. A lot of stuff with different flowers, sandwiches and soups and hay again. You can think of it instead of meat there was hay. Not in the mood for experiments, I decided for pumpkin soup and apple juice for now.

Let me tell you using a hoof like a hand is very, _very _strange. "This is will take some getting used to." I mumbled. "You don't know how it is the other way around." Sunset said looking up from her hay and potatoes. "How does hay taste anyway? Like meat?" I asked. "No. It has its own taste altogether." She informed me.

The rest of the time we sat there in silence, eating. I kind of stood out, since I was sitting like a human and not like a pony. A pony sits on all four and ass down. Despite living with humans for years, Sunset still sat there like a pony without second thinking.

XIII

The sun started to set as we walked outside and made our way towards the library, hoping to lend some books before closing time. The streets were unusually empty.

"I don't like this." Sunset said, eyeing the houses carefully. My gut feeling told me I should know what was going on, but it just wouldn't pop up in my head. To be honest, I grew a little paranoid myself. "Is there some kind of holiday I should know about?"

"...No. I checked the time of the year and the Summer Sun Celebration just went over."

"Okay...oh. Twilight and the others will be in the castle pretty soon."

"Damn. Whatever, the show is clearly not accurate. Between the episodes there have to be several days passing by. Also at least in Season 1 the order of the episodes didn't make any sense at all."

"Oh yeah, the winter episode came before the fall episode."

I'm not the only one who noticed the problem, right? I never thought much about it, until I started writing fanfictions. And now I'm into the mess.

We came to a halt in front of the library, where Sunset took in some deep breaths. "Are you alright?" I asked. "Yeah, let's go and...meet _princess _Twilight Sparkle."

Oh THAT was the problem. Hopefully she wouldn't blow things up, when she saw Twilight. With any luck only Spike would be there, give us some books and we'd be out in no time. Only we wouldn't.

I approached the library and opened it. We walked inside, noticing it was a little dark until...

"SURPRISE!"

"WHOA!" I shouted jumping up with the help of my wings and hitting the ceiling. In the meantime I saw a beam in the color of Sunset's magic hitting something. I fell back to the ground and landed uncomfortably on my stomach, seeing stars literally. It wasn't the first time, back when I was human and got a little too thirsty and tired while jogging, I saw small lights in front of me appearing and disappearing. So I wasn't all that worried. Part of me was curious how my body almost received no damage.

Oh and I accidently changed into fire mode.

The poor pony that had been hit with the beam looked like it got electrocuted with his fur standing up everywhere. "Oh man..." I groaned and got up. I looked over to Sunset who had a defensive stance and her horn was glowing with magic. I turned towards the HUGE group of ponies and noticed everyone staring at me. It didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next.

Pinkie leaped up from the middle of the crowd with a bucket of water in her hooves. "Pony on FIREEEEEE!" To my defense, I was still too dizzy to dodge.

XIII

_**Sunset's POV**_

Arc collapsed losing consciousness after the water hit him. Great, now he only could change back on his own accord. I used my magic to put up a small barrier around his wings, so the building wouldn't catch fire. I made a mental note to get a camera extra for Tirek who would blow this place up anyway.

"If you want to kill him, you'll need more water." I told Pinkie who looked apologetic.

"B-but, your friend...h-how..."

I shrugged. And did she really refer to him as my friend? "He lost control over his magic after you surprised us. Just don't splash anymore water on him, unless you really want to kill him of course.

Who's the librarian?" I asked to the crowd.

_Princess _Twilight Sparkle stepped out of the crowd. I bowed respectfully just because I didn't want to attract any attention. "Oh...uh..no need to bow or anything. Umm, about your friend..."

"Just stop with the water already..." he growled getting up, shaking like he was freezing. "Are you alright?" asked Twilight. Instead of answering Arc turned into his water form, where I could release the barriers. The crowd gasped at the sudden performance. "Much better." he moaned and looked over to me.

"What the..?"

There were several gasps from within the crowd as he changed his element to water. I turned my attention back to the princess and frowned. She was still staring at Arc. I cleared my throat and got her attention. "We came here for some books."

"B-but your friend...his wings..."

"Normal for me." came Arc's response.

"Anyways I wanted to ask if you have some advanced spell books here. A good history book would be nice too."

"S-sure." Twilight regained her composure. "After the party-"

"No." I cut her off.

"Huh?"

"Just the books. We have no time for any silly parties."

The earth pony was back in action. "But this is YOUR party and-"

"-and I don't care." I cut off and finished her sentence. "Besides..." Arc took over "after that little stunt, I feel like I just lost 25% of my blood. Now if you'd be so kind to give us the books we want. I need to rest up and she..." he trailed off.

"I need to supervise him and teleport him to the hospital in case his condition gets worse overnight." I turned to Pinkie Pie and decided a little over exaggerating wouldn't hurt. "You really could have killed him in the worst case scenario you know?" I suppressed a smug grin as I saw her head fell. Strange enough her hair became straight for some reason.

"Hey, no need for ya ta be so harsh."

"No need?" I asked. Now all these acting lessons back from high school finally paid off. "He could have lost his life, HIS LIFE!" I shouted at the orange earth mare. "What else should I have said? I forgive you for your stupidity? Maybe for something minor, but this here's a pony's LIFE AT STAKE!"

While Twilight collected some books, I acted like I was concerned about Arc. He seemed to be okay, just a little weak as he told me. "Didn't know you're good at acting."

"Shut up and get better. I don't need you injured." I whispered back.

"Thanks for your concern." he replied with a grin. He wasn't expecting any. He didn't know much, but he probably knew me better than anyone else, except for Celestia. The other ponies were already getting the party stuff out of the way.

"Here you go." I looked over the titles and nodded. "Thanks. How long? Two weeks?"

"Three." she replied. I nodded. "Alright let's get back to the inn. You okay?" I quickly added the last part. "I'll make it. Should remember to change my element more often."

"Don't forget to change back to normal. I'm not going to pay if you make everything wet."

We left the library.

XIII

Arc changed back into his normal form before we entered the inn. We went up or in Arc's case stumbled and went to bed. I had the light on my nightstand on in order to read a bit in those books, while Arc had problems putting the blanket over him, but eventually managed. I snickered, but couldn't really blame the guy.

That little scene there just let me decide to give him a month, instead of a week to learn how to fly. He wasn't dumb oh no, I already saw his knowing grin way too often and that speaks a lot for itself, for I know him only for a few days. It was just plain obvious.

Or maybe he was just excited.

I resumed reading to my book. He didn't complain about the light and soon his breathing became steady, indicating he was asleep.

I skipped a lot of pages inside the book, since it contained things I already knew, and was finished with it when half of the night was over. Deciding to get some shut eye, I shut off the lamp and fell asleep.

XIII

I woke up sweating bullets. That had not been a nice dream in many ways. I looked over to the site and was relieved when I saw Arc was not in his bed, so he couldn't see me like this.

_Buck it, he's a fanboy. He probably knows that you're a little softy from the inside._

I shook my head clear. _I. Am. Not. Weak. I. Am. Not. Soft._

Downstairs I found Arc at a breakfast table. He looked like he was already finished.

"Morning."

I just sat down instead of replying. The waiter came and I gave him my order.

"Pinkie was here, wanting to apologize." I groaned out loud. "I managed to get her go away, but only temporarily. Oh and I managed to get the location of the castle of the two sisters. Well, I know which path we have to take."

I looked at him surprised. "You thought that much ahead?"

"Nah, just used the opportunity."

My breakfast arrived. "Seeing as you're finished" I put some bits down at the table "get each of us a bag."

"You got it. Well if I manage to grab the money that is..." I rolled my eyes at his stupor. But eventually he did manage to grab the money and walked outside.

XIII

_**Arc's POV**_

After five minutes I realized my problem. I had no idea where to buy two bags. Now normally I would have asked someone for the way, B-U-T they all looked at me like I was some kind of freak. Sighing I rolled my eyes and just looked at every store I came across.

"Oh it's you!" I heard a voice. I looked to the front and found Twilight approaching me. "Are you feeling better?" she asked concerned.

"Yup, just a goodnight rest and everything is alright. Sorry by the way about yesterday, for being grumpy and all. It just hurt a lot."

"I understand, but what you did yesterday was simply amazing!" she cheered. "I mean you're a pegasus and you used magic!"

I was a little embarrassed. "It's my cutie mark I guess..."

"Oh yeah, your cutie mark! What does it mean?! How do you use magic? Where are you from? Is it something inside your family? Or-"

"Ummm..."

Now she was embarrassed and cleared her throat. "Sorry, I guess I got a little taken away."

"Uh huh. Well, mind if I ask a question?"

"Of course not."

"Do you happen to know where they sell bags here?" I asked.

"Sure thing. I can bring you right there." she _flew _ahead. I gulped. _Brain, come up with something. Fast!_

Twilight eventually noticed I was still on the ground and came back. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Sorry." I grinned sheepishly. "But no flying for me for 24 hours. Safety measurement, since...I...I how do I put this?" I thought frantically. "Well I guess you could say the main part of my magic goes through my wings. Arrgh, I didn't study up magic, it's just to be sure I don't get crippled I shouldn't use my wings, at least when it isn't necessary."

"Ah, I see." Twilight nodded and landed next to me. We walked and talked along the way.

"By the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle. And you're?"

"Wind Arc." I replied. It surprised myself how easy it came over my lips, like I've had this name my whole life. "Say, about your wings...mind if I...uh...run some tests?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Sorry, but that's Sunset's job."

"Sunset? Oh the mare that was with you yesterday."

"Yeah, she's not the most socializing perso- uh pony. And she gets angry pretty fast when someone interferes with her studies. Part of that being me."

"Is that all she's seeing you? A study project?"

I smiled in response. "I bet there's a reason behind that. I just keep her company or else she'd be all alone with a bunch of books. Oh and no more parties. She really doesn't like THAT kind of attention."

"That kind?"

"Is this an interrogation?" I asked. "Oh no, sorry. Anyway, we're here."

We stood in front of a store that sold a lot of leather stuff. "Thanks, you saved me a lot of time." Then I remembered something. "How's the pink pony doing?" I asked.

Twilight frowned. "I don't know. I was actually on my way to her."

"She was at the inn this morning and wanted to apologize. I told her it's fine, but she looks like the kind of pony to me, who wouldn't give up so easily. Please tell her not to bother Sunset or else Sunset will say some unpleasant things." I laughed. "You might even call her an element of disharmony."

"Is it that bad?"

"Not everyone wants as many friends as possible and I think we all should respect that. Anyway, thanks for bringing me here. See ya."

_I think I spoke too much. _I thought to myself while purchasing two good looking bags. I carefully avoided mentioning Sunset's full name, in case Twilight decided to write a letter. Although let alone the Sunset part might, just M-I-G-H-T get Celestia's attention. I shook my head clear.

Twilight had no reason to write a letter to Celestia, at least she had no reason to write one that would mention Sunset's name. We just had to not attract any attention and do what we came for here, before we'd leave this place.

Carrying two bags wasn't easy, as I had to carry one thing in my freaking mouth. Groaning inwardly I made my way back to the inn.

When I entered I didn't saw Sunset anywhere. Asking the receptionist, I was told that Sunset was in our room. So I went upstairs and found Sunset reading a book. I shouldn't be surprised, since there was nothing else to do for her. She looked up at me and closed the book. I found out she already read two books out of five she borrowed, not counting the history book that was for me.

She levitated one of the bags and put it over herself. Next she levitated the history book into my bag. "We'll go to the castle now. You'll be able to learn how to fly. And if I catch you slacking off...you don't want to hear the last of it."

"Better than a world without donuts."

...

"What's with you and your donuts?"

"Just trying to be random, but I forgot I used that joke already at the end of the last chapter."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Arc has other element powers. He just didn't have a reason to try them out so far.**

**Encounters**

_**Sunset's POV**_

As we entered the forest, Arc mumbled some stuff to himself. Something about left, than at whatever right.

Turned out he was reminiscing the road we needed to take. Road wasn't the right word actually. There were some ways where there was nothing but grass or pathways made by the local animals.

The longer we walked the more tense Arc got. "Are you sure you know the way? I'm going to teleport away and just leave you here if it turns out that we're lost."

"You're really into this boss villain thing, aren't you?" he remarked dryly.

We walked for another ten minutes until we had solid ground under our hooves again. I was about to say something, when Arc beat me to it. "There we go." He seemed relieved. "From here on out it is like a walk through the park. This is the old road from the old capital."

"How do you know?" I asked. He pointed towards an old rock. Looking very closely you could identify it as an old sign. "Pinkie told me about that sign. Apparently she found...something under there she mixes up in her punch."

I didn't check under the sign.

We walked a little further and I noticed more light coming through the trees. The path got a little more solid too and sure enough soon we could see the castle of the two sisters.

"Hey boss, when you're a princess, are you going to build your own castle?" Arc asked.

_A castle. My own castle. Yes that sounds wonderful._

"Of course, what do you think?"

Arc shrugged. "Just curious. I know, you could have a room with a large painted glass window on the west side and then when the sun sets...but what would the picture be? A sun?"

"Me, of course. Maybe I'll let them ad my cutie mark."

"Yeah, I guess the sun itself is more Celestia's thing."

We were almost there, when we could hear a sudden growl from somewhere. Freezing in our tracks, we sharpened our ears and listened carefully. I heard something from the bushes and soon enough something slowly crawled out.

"Holy shit!" Arc exclaimed. I could literally smell his fear of the two tiny timberwolves. I needed to remind myself that so far he lived in a world with almost no danger. "Focus!" I snarled, getting him to at least stop shivering. He shook his head and took at least fighting position. "Right...oh shit..." I rolled my eyes. Maybe a little demonstration would get it to him.

I used a simple fire spell and shot a fireball against the wolf in front of me. The fiffy howled in pain, but the fire didn't last.

"Tch, guess I'm a little out of practice."

"Fire! I'm such a dumbass!" He finally changed into his fire form. The second wolf took instinctively a step back. "Ha! Not so courageous anymore?"

"Don't bark, BITE!"

He looked at me. "Here goes." To give him credit, he charged at full speed at the wolf, who took a few steps back in fear of the fire. That seemed to encourage Arc a little more. He jumped and hit the wolf with his hoof. I thought I heard a little explosion and looking directly, I saw he left a burn mark on the wolf.

A snarl reminded me that I was not finished with my own wolf. Why it only stepped back instead of running away I can only assume it was just dumb. I charged a little more magic into my next fireball and finished it off.

Arc in the meantime had hit his wolf a few more times and that thing was smart enough to run away.

"Woo! We won!" he exclaimed.

"What else?" I asked him. He shuddered with his entire body and then stretched himself before changing back into his normal form. I walked ahead, not in the mood for another encounter. Still, I made a mental note to practice my magic, especially offensive spells.

We soon arrived at the bridge I didn't fully trust. Just out of caution we walked one after the other over the weak bridge.

XIII

"Oh yeah, that reminds me..." Arc began as we were walking through the old corridors, looking for the library "the pony of shadows is supposed to live here."

"Pony of shadows?" I asked curios.

"Supposed to be a fragment of Nightmare Moon that didn't get banished 1000 years ago. In the end of the episode you could see a pair of two glowing eyes. They look like Zecora's, but some speculate it were Tirek's eyes. Nobody really knows, so it might be worth investigating."

"I'll think about it." I retorted.

"The pony is supposed to appear at night, so we have plenty of time."

We found the library five minutes later, after accidentally activating a trap that let us fall a level lower. In my castle I'll make sure the traps will be more than a little annoying.

"Alright, I'm off."

"Don't get lost." I ordered Arc. We came across a hallway, which leads to the old garden. Of course it was full of garbage, but the best place for Arc to start learning how to fly. I looked over the large stack of ancient books and grinned to myself. Looks like we'd be staying longer in Ponyville than I intentionally wanted. Maybe, maybe not. Depending on how fast I finish these books.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

Now how to teach yourself how to fly? I was never good at physics, that's more my sister's thing. So what can you do if you have no idea on how flying works?

Well for one I tried synchronizing my wings, so that I would actually get off the ground. Let me tell you, it was the most tedious task I've ever done. It took me hours. HOURS to get it work on purpose. Needless to say I actually panicked when I got off the ground and landed ungracefully in the grass.

The next logical step of course was to move somewhere. Up, down, left right, front and back. But I was scared. This wasn't some save training ground, these here were ruins. When I hit something, it would hurt, a lot.

So I took a step back and tried something else that might be useful: gliding. I played a few Spyro games, where you play as a young dragon who can't fly, but glide. Belief me, even gliding sounds easier on paper, than it actually is. Spreading out your wings and jumping isn't enough, unless there is a current that's carrying you somewhere, like a wall. Luckily I only got a nosebleed.

I figured out I needed to jump in one direction and then spread my wings. And belief me until I could glide straight ahead I didn't try anything else that day.

But thinking it all over I was actually quite proud of myself of how far I got. Gliding from rubble to rubble was actually quite fun. Feeling the wind against your face, especially under your wings. I probably acted more like a child on that day. Except for the curses that came out, when a sudden wind current smashed me somewhere.

"I definitely didn't sign up as a crash test dummy." I told Sunset as I entered the library. She laughed out loud at seeing all my bruises and the rest of blood from my nosebleed. There was no way of washing it up somewhere in the castle.

Then it hit me. Water form. I changed elements and got rid of the icky stuff, shoving my wings over my nose and changed back. I wanted to go to the table and start reading the history book, but Sunset stopped me.

"Can you change in other element forms despite fire and water?" she asked me, getting off the table. I thought about it and shrugged. "Might as well try."

I first focused on rock. My mane got brown, fur a lighter brown and my eyes some white color, but not pure white, more like a white stone that was exposed to nature. Surprisingly it worked and I could still raise my wings. But they were very heavy. "I think this makes flying impossible." I commented, lifting my wings up, only for them to fall down and make some loud noise, which echoed through the entire castle.

Next I tried ice and surprisingly it worked. I thought since I have water, ice was not in there, since ice was just water. Mane white, fur icy blue and same for my eyes. My wings looked like a bunch of diamonds. And all of the sudden I found the cold night comfortably warm.

Next wind. Now that was interesting. First of the colors. Mane olive green, fur grey and eyes like a green lemon. My wings were little tornados. Curiously I tried them out and bad mistake. Hit the top plus hit t8he bottom equals into a lot of pain and more laughter from Sunset.

I reverted to normal, but stayed on the ground for a little longer. I had a few more ideas, but I wasn't in the mood anymore and luckily Sunset returned to her book.

"Shouldn't we go back? It's pretty late after all." She just gave me a glare that said: "We're going to be here the entire night."

Man she could be scary if she wanted to be. So what I did was taking out the history book and started reading. Not really studying just reading it one time, so a little bit of info would be in my head. I actually quite enjoyed history lessons back at school, so I had no problem getting absorbed into my own book. The atmosphere the candlelight provided was cool too and something else.

However I wasn't immune to sleep, like Sunset apparently was. I didn't hear her yawn even one time and it must have been past midnight already. I yawned for what seemed to be the 50th time already. Unfortunately sleeping while sitting as a pony is quite difficult if you're not used to your pony body.

"Oh shut up." Sunset growled at one time. I looked around a little until my eyes rested on my bag. I got to the ground and placed my head on my back. Not very comfortable, I can tell you. I would have switched to fire or eyes, but I might have damaged the bag or a book.

There was a sudden gust of wind and the candles were blown out. Sunset muttered something about old castles under her breath and lit up her horn. She focused a mini fire spell on the candles, but they were blown out again. Growling she repeated the process and the wind was there yet again.

"That's...disturbing." I commented.

"Someone obviously wants to play a game. Arc, make yourself useful and light up this place."

"What? Oh, oh, right. Fire."

I got into fire mode. We had now more vision, a little more than the candles provided us with. Sunset got off her chair and started looking around for the culprit. I looked too, but didn't see a pony or any other thing that might be capable of using magic.

"You think that was...?"

"Only one way to find out." She stated and walked ahead. I followed her carefully looking around and covering her back in general. Hopefully she would do the same with my front. Just it turned out to be a bad decision, because Sunset accidently activated a switch that was on the ground and I fell through the floor.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed and landed yet again ungracefully on my stomach. "Is this...some kind of running gag?" I asked.

"Arc! We don't have all day! Get your ass up here!"

"Let me at least catch my breath..." I muttered. Looking up I gulped. "Okay, you got this Arc." I told myself. I simply used what I learned today, only this time I'd be watched by the careful eye of an annoyed Sunset Shimmer.

I flew upwards, which was the easy part, the one I already mastered. Gliding was out of question, I just couldn't jump in midair. I had to fly. I did some brainstorming and came to the conclusion I needed to change the angle of my wings. Which I did, only to fly backwards and crash into some old pony armor.

"Ouch..."

Sunset snorted and got off the switch, closing the trap door. I walked over to her and shook my head in order to get rid of the helmet that had been stuck on my head. Question, how do you fly with fire?

"At this rate you'll be known as the most destructive flyer in Equestria. A few seconds longer and the armor would have started melting."

I looked over to the armor and found it glowing out from the heat of my wings. "Oh."

I looked back and found out that Sunset was already around the corner. I quickly ran after her and this time I placed myself next to her.

"Careful with your wings."

"Oh, sorry." I myself didn't notice any heat from my wings, just that everything around me felt colder than it actually was. I took some distance to sunset and we continued on until we found ourselves at yet again a decision of which way to take. Normally Sunset just picked one out at random or a pattern I didn't understood (I think it was the first) and just waltzed in like that.

This time however it seemed like she was looking for something. "Did you hear that?" she asked. I focused on my hearing and even closed my eyes, but I didn't hear anything.

"Nope, nothing." I shook my head.

Sunset listened up again.

"Maybe I am a little tired. Might have been the wind." She mused.

"Should we go back?"

"No." she said determined. "No one messes with Sunset Shimmer." she declared in a growl/whisper tone. "'Kay..." I said with a raised eyebrow. Sunset eventually decided on a way and we continued walking.

"..."

I stopped in my tracks and looked around. "Coulda sworn I heard something..." I mused more to myself. Sunset looked at me intrigued. "That is hardly a coincidence, especially in a cliché world like this one." she said.

"So you're admitting that you're a just a cliché villain?" I asked with a grin, only to get my head smacked with her hoof. "Ow!" Some sparks came out of my wings, when I 'waved' with them on instinct after getting hit.

There was the faint sound of someone giggling, getting both of our attention.

"Why does it have to be a creepy little girl?" I asked the air.

"Hmph, wimp." Sunset commented.

"You ever played Silent Hill?" I asked. Seriously Alessa is cool, but she's creepy.

"The sound came from there. Don't piss yourself."

We walked further into the castle a little up, where we found several ways meeting at one big hallway towards a big double door. The castle is way bigger than shown in the cartoon, let me tell. At least three or five times. We encountered yet another cliché: doors opening themselves.

Sunset was the first one to recover and walk in. She was either stupid or brave, because this could have easy been a trap. I followed after her and the doors slammed shut behind us. The room we were in was pretty large and spacious with big windows. Of course debris was laying here and there, but there were no holes in the walls and the ceiling was pretty much more or less intact.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Looks like a ballroom." Sunset said walking into the middle. "I know you're here! Show yourself!" she shouted. The answer was the childish giggling from earlier. It seemed to come from everywhere.

Then suddenly some shadows started moving and formed a group of four earth ponies that still looked like shadows and head glowing yellow eyes. If it would have been humans, I would have been scared, but these guys looked rather cool, than scary in my eyes.

I snapped out of my stupor, when they started attacking Sunset. She in response threw with levitation some debris at the ponies. Unfortunately it only slowed them down, because it got through them as if they were made off some slimy liquid.

Sunset teleported/dodged next to me. I picked up one of the ponies and charged at them. I should have been smarter, when that one pony just waited until my hoof got through it and it laughed up with some raspy voice.

Before I could get a grip of the situation my leg was somehow stuck and I got thrown away by the pony. "Whoaaaa OUCH!"

Sunset shot some ice spikes, but it didn't do any damage. The ponies split up on us, two faced me and two Sunset. Despite the ice spell not working I tried ice form and charged, with the other two charging too. I thought I could freeze them. My hoof connected only to go through it again. While I was hold by the first one, the second one turned around and kicked me hard. Somehow their timing was perfect and the other one let me go in time, so I could be send flying.

Sunset seemed to try out some more specific spells, not element offensive but more like making something disappear or changing the appearance. Her beams connected, but it didn't work yet again and she teleported to another spot of the room.

I tried to get my brain to work despite the bruises I received. So far it was nothing critical.

_Let's see, freezing didn't work. Fire is out, wind, water and rock won't most likely work. Lightning? Worth a try._

My wings became electricity as they changed and sparks continued coming out of them. Purple sparks. My mane got violet, my eyes a grey/violet tone, my mane a dark grey.

I charged at them and they charged back. My hoof connected first with one of the guys, sending a small bolt of lightning through his body. He stopped moving, but before I even realized that a hoof connected with my face.

I turned to the other one and punched, our hooves connecting. It still went through the guy, but it stunned him. Yet the other guy already recovered.

"Electricity works!" I shouted to Sunset.

She in response started shooting electricity with her blue/green magic out of her horn, keeping the shadow ponies at distance. Then she got like auto shot, braindead, afk, just shooting spell after spell until the first one disappeared.

I was occupied with my opponents, but physical damage, even if boosted, didn't seem to do the trick, at least not on short notice. Suddenly everyone in the room was blinded as a bright light came out of Sunset's horn and connected with her other opponent, melting him.

"Light works even better." she smiled, but seemed a little exhausted after that particular spell.

_Light? Hmm, didn't thought of that myself. Worth a shot I guess._

Short version, it worked. Long version summoning light magic (and later dark magic) is really exhausting. My mane got blonde, my fur a bright white and my eyes golden. My wings seemed to be made out of light. Changing is what always takes the energy, else I'd have collapsed. The shadow ponies took a step back.

"Heh...the game is on." I panted.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Retreat, for now**_

**Sunset's POV**

When Arc changed his form, the fight was pretty much over. He charged at the next best shadow pretty much mindlessly, but they didn't have much of a brain anyways. A few good punches with his hooves and the shadow pony died, letting out a scream full of pain. The second shadow, I could only laugh. Arc was out of breath and the pony wanted to use the chance to get him, but failed miserably when it jumped at Arc and hit his wings. It burned up like it was made of oil. The scream indicated it was a very painful death.

Arc lost balance and fell to the ground, panting heavily. "Urrgh, good thing it is over…" he groaned. I was a little tired myself after using a light element based spell, but could still stand. Before I could say anything about how he should get up, there was again the giggling of a girl. The shadows in the room started moving and suddenly we found ourselves face to face with 6 shadow ponies.

"Oh, come on!" Arc exclaimed getting up on his hooves.

"This is not good." I muttered under my breath. This was alicorn magic we were dealing with and we already got ourselves exhausted from simply fighting our enemies without using the proper tactics.

This was not running away. This was a tactical retreat. It had been done in the past by both famous humans and ponies, so there was no shame in retreating. Soon enough the whole of Equestria would fear me. But they couldn't fear me when I was dead. So in conclusion of my goal and being currently not in the condition to fight that many enemies, I quickly approached Arc and teleported us out of the castle. Thanks to my specialty in magic, it didn't take much concentration to get us both out and in front of the castle.

My sidekick looked a little dazed until he realized I teleported us out. He sighed in relief and gave me a grateful look. "Let's go back." I announced. He let his head hung for some reason, most likely exhaustion. But the way he sighed got a curios glance out of me.

Arc remained in his light form, which could be considered a dangerous thing, but somehow we didn't get attacked. Maybe his wings blinded the creatures of the night or maybe we were just plain lucky. When we arrived at Ponyville, Celestia already started raising the sun and the element of kindness saw us emerging from the forest. I had the one or other bruise myself, but nothing too serious. Arc was good to go too, just more bruises than I had.

"Uhh…excuse me?" I almost didn't hear her, but a simple glare from me shut her up. Arc was gathering quite the crowd with his form. Not a big one, since it was still early and we managed to get back to the inn. We climbed into our beds and as soon as we did it, Arc finally changed back. He lost consciousness from overusing his magic. Before I entirely fell asleep myself, I heard a voice in my head saying: _"That was fun. Let's play again!" _I dismissed it as a dream.

XIII

I was the first one to wake up. Judging from the position of the sun, it was around 1 'o' clock. I never needed much sleep, studying deep into the night and all. I left Arc a note stating I would be at the local library and ordering him to get some flying training done. I was about to head out, when I remembered Arc didn't have any money. Well he had proven himself useful, so I left him a few bits on the nightstand.

I walked out at the inn and into town. The whispers started immediately as I stepped outside the building. Rumors spread around faster than I thought, even if this town is very small. I thought about teleporting to the library, but I'd need as much magic as possible pretty soon. Those ponies were wimps, a simple glare and they left me alone.

I arrived at the library just when it opened. Twilight Sparkle was just opening a book, when she saw me. "Ah, Sunset, wasn't it?"

"Sunset Shimmer." I corrected her and levitated one of the books I borrowed and finished on her table. "I came to bring this back."

"Wow. I thought I was the only one who can read a book in less than a day. Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked.

"Just want to read here, seeing as nopony else seems to ever bother coming here." Was my simple reply, while I levitated out the other books and placed myself on the ground and started reading. "I see, if you need anything, just tell me."

This Twilight and I had a few things in common. We both loved to study, both our specialties were magic and none of us had a problem reading on the bare ground. I could see why Celestia chose her as my replacement. Now that I watched the show, I could see that the sun princess only needed Twilight as a tool to get her sister, Princess Luna, back.

The transformation into an alicorn? It was always good to have an alicorn at your side from whom you knew she wouldn't even dare thinking of betraying you.

On occasion Spike, Twilight's baby dragon would come into the room and do some stuff. The first time he saw me, I could hear him muttering: "Great, now there's two of them."

I finished with my second book a few hours later and Twilight put it away. I still had two more to go, but there was something else that was nagging me. "Do you have something about local myths?" I asked. The princess looked at me in confusion. "Specifically about the so called 'Pony of Shadows'."

"Pony of Shadows? Never heard about it."

I shrugged. "It's supposed to live in the old castle nearby. A fragment of Nightmare Moon that wasn't banished and now roams every night inside the castle."

Twilight chuckled. "I didn't thought you belief in myths."

"Princess, I have seen enough to not dismiss myths as simple myths. Just look at Wind Arc. Or think about the 'legend' of Nightmare Moon."

Twilight got the message and started skipping over the back covers of the books. "Speaking of your friend, where is he?" she asked.

"Sleeping. We did some…experiments yesterday and he's still exhausted."

"Mhm. His powers are really interesting. Hey I have a laboratory downstairs. Maybe you could bring him downstairs and we could together run some tests on him."

"No." Was my immediate response, before I even considered the pros and cons. Any information that just ever so slightly might get Celestia's attention needed to be concealed.

"Why?" Now this mare was getting annoying, but a deep breath calmed me down and gave me some time to think of an excuse. "I can't tell you, it's personal."

She actually believed that silly excuse and kept searching. She just pulled out a book and was skipping over the pages, when the dragon came running downstairs. "Twilight! A letter from the princess!"

I tensed up after hearing this. Now of all times? I barely arrived in Ponyville! I need more time to study what exactly is inside the castle and then finally defeat and absorb its magic!

_Okay, calm down Sunset. You can always leave Ponyville for a few days and come back later. Besides you're not even sure if she knows that you're back or not._

"She writes that princess Luna will come to Ponyville!" I couldn't suppress the sigh that left my mouth. "Why would the princess of the night personally come to this town?" I couldn't help my curiosity.

"Something about an unusual large rate of ponies having nightmares." Twilight still looked into the letter. Was this somehow connected to what happened to me and Arc?

On another hoof, I needed to make sure neither Arc nor I became the center of the attention the next following days Luna would be in Ponyville. If she even slightly mentions my name on a side note in a casual conversation I was doomed. I couldn't take on Celestia, not as I was now. "She'll be coming tomorrow night, after she raised the moon."

So tomorrow we would go to the castle already. Well I was certain I'd be fully recovered until then and with my knowledge of the weakness of the enemies it shouldn't be a problem at all fighting those things.

I excused myself from the two and headed with my two remaining books to the inn. I ate something and found Arc's bed abandoned. The money was gone along with the note. Hopefully Arc wouldn't catch any attention while learning how to fly properly. I placed myself on my bed and started reading the other books.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

_Okay, I can go up, down, left, right, front, back, stay in one position, glide and land softly. Get your courage together and start to fly, rooky!_

After shouting at myself from inside my mind I took in one last breath. Some parts of my body still ache from the other day, but the way those ponies were looking at me, not flying and all, I was getting out of excuses.

After taking a deep breath I started flapping my wings and got up from the ground. So far so good. Now to actually position my wings in the right angle and fly ahead. I did it slowly and in result I flew a little bit zigzag at the beginning as if I was made out of pixels. Then I slowly progressed up ahead until I was ten meters above the ground.

"Phew." I imitated a move with my front leg as if I was rubbing of sweat from my forehead. I wasn't sweating and I actually doubt horses/ponies actually sweat because of the fur.

"Wow, nice view." I looked around a bit. I was over a field away from Ponyville, but near Sweet Apple Acres. I flew a bit over the farm, slowly, not only because I was a beginner, but also because of the happenings of the other day. It was quite enjoyable. Luckily I wasn't afraid of heights or else that would have been pretty nasty.

I found a large cloud and then remembered something: pegasi could move clouds and step on them. Okay, clouds were basically made out of water, but this was a cartoon.

"Oh yeah, that's heaven." The cloud was really soft. No wonder Rainbow Dash always takes naps on these things. I almost fell asleep, if not for the sudden chilly air. The sun was setting down and Sunset was most likely back. When going to I mostly only glided, part of the reason being Ponyville a bit away from my spot. The other part was I didn't want to accidentally crash-land. After all, I was still getting the hang of my wings and the right angle. From time to time I still screwed up with the angle, but I quickly caught myself and successfully landed on the street.

_Okay, tomorrow I will fly around a little more and once I can fly fast without the fear of crashing into something, I'll try changing elements during flight. Better over a large lake or a bunch of clouds._

Before I went back, I actually stopped by the local "burger joint". Yeah, a burger ain't a burger without meat. About hay, Sunset was right. It really has its own taste. With ketchup you can get it down more easily, but without…meh.

I walked back to the inn afterwards and found Sunset just closing a book and taking on another book. "Princess Luna is visiting Ponyville tomorrow night." Okay that caught me totally off guard. "How do you know?" I asked.

"I was at the library, when she got a letter. Something about an unnatural high rate of ponies having nightmares. Since I don't want Celestia to know about me yet-"

"-we're going to the castle tomorrow." I finished with a deadpan expression. "Exactly." Sunset smiled evilly for some reason. Oh right, the greed of power. Not sure if we'll actually be successful in defeating the small version of Nightmare Moon, if it really comes to a fight against her. Not sure how strong Nightmare Moon is compared to Sunset and the same with the shadow thingy. I haven't had any nightmares the previous times I was asleep in this world.

I got myself under the blanket and continued reading the history book from where I left out, my worry growing with each second. Tomorrow would be a hard day and my life would actually be at danger. I didn't realize it yesterday, but now it was fully in my head. Oh brother.

XIII

**Third person POV**

Celestia would never get used to the feeling of the castle being empty. Of course with her sister's return things had become brighter and funny from time to time with Luna struggling with modern Equestria.

But as time passed the feeling returned. At first she thought it was because Twilight wasn't living at the castle anymore. A logical conclusion, considering how close she was to her student. But thinking about students brought up a memory about a certain red/yellow unicorn.

No matter what everypony else said, Celestia knew she failed as a mentor to Sunset Shimmer. Thinking back, when she first met the unicorn, she should have adopted her as her own daughter. Sunset had been an orphan and saw Celestia as a bigger mother figure than even Twilight did. As a result Celestia's methods of teaching brought Sunset Shimmer into feeling hold back and maybe a little betrayed. If only Celestia would have cared more about her student's feelings.

If only, if only, but now it was too late. Her little pony was lost behind the accursed mirror, because of a stupid old mare. She walked outside her personal balcony and looked up at the beautiful night sky her sister had created. The resent increased nightmares her sister sensed concerned the sun deity too, but she didn't seem to be able to focus tonight. Just the other day her student Twilight had send a letter about a pegasus with a strange cutie mark, which allows him to use magic on his wings and summon certain elements. He was in company of a unicorn mare, Celestia had no description so far, and that she was researching his abilities. Just a day before the two arrived the nightmares started. Did those two had something to do with it or was it just pure coincidence?

Celestia was lacking information.

And yet her thoughts again trailed off to Sunset Shimmer again. "Stupid old mare you're Celestia." She growled to herself. "If only you wouldn't be so stuck up in your teaching methods." It was pretty much common knowledge that not all ponies react the same to the same teaching methods. She saw it every time in the reports of her school for gifted unicorns. Some ponies got better along with that and that teacher.

The alicorn knew it was no use mourning over the past, but she didn't want to forget either. Forgetting would only make things worse. All she could do was go on and learn from her mistakes. And hope that one day her student would return.

XIII

Princess Luna, the deity of the night was currently dream-walking and helping all those poor ponies in Ponyville. She even suspended the night court for the day, only to banish all those unnatural nightmares.

Luckily so far they didn't affect the health of the poor ponies and it wasn't spreading, still her hooves were full this night. Entering somepony's dream was always an invasion in the privacy, so she only did it when it was really necessary.

As she flew invisible above the small town of Ponyville, something caught her ethereal eye. Something about the dream of those two ponies was even more unnatural than by the other ones. Somepony or something has linked those two together in their dreams. Luna wasted no time and entered their dreamscape.

"Okay~….? Why the hell are we humans?" One of the two creatures asked Luna was unfamiliar with. It called itself a 'human'.

The human with the longer hair looked around her face being a frown. "This is not real, just an illusion." She explained. Her hand glowed up for a second before it disappeared. "I still have my magic. This feels way too real to be a simple dream."

"No kidding." The other one replied. Suddenly its clothes changed. The jacket and the trousers turned red, the pullover under an even brighter red. His hair was dark red and his eyes ruby. Its hooves were still black. At least Luna thought it were hooves. However most astonishing were the human's hooves on his forelegs. They turned to fire.

"You think that thing is behind all this?" the one with the fire hooves asked. "Doesn't look like a nightmare to me."

"Tch, just keep your eyes open." The human balled his claw shaped hoof or whatever it was and pumped it into the open other claw. "Some just can't wait to die."

The other human sighed and shook its head. It looked around a little and its eyes rested on Luna. "Huh, go figure. Now THAT is a surprise."

The human with the green/blue magic turned around and tensed up. "This gotta be some sort of trick. You got lucky in the castle, but this time you're finished." It announced.

Before Luna could retord anything a small ball of light was shot at her. A simple offensive spell, though it was impressive that the being was capable of using the light. Luna repelled the weak attack with ease.

It then came to her that those two humans have to be the two ponies who were dreaming and they knew something. However they mistook her for the culprit and were attacking her now.

Registering that they might think her words would be just a trick of the true culprit, she decided to back away for now and speak to them outside the dreamscape. Just as Luna left their dream, she heard a voice: _"Aww, you're no fun."_

The connected dream between the ponies stopped.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Confrontation**_

**Arc's POV**

Last night was just plain weird. I'm not sure whether this had been our little 'friend' disguised as Princess Luna or the real deal. In case of the latter, we'd be in trouble. Meh, I would get us into trouble soon enough anyway. Heck I just can't wait to troll the princesses.

I was able to convince Sunset to buy some food before we headed towards the castle (seriously, sometimes she just doesn't think ahead). Hell, I didn't even know what the actual plan was. In case we defeated Mini Nightmare Moon before Luna arrived, what then? What's Sunset expecting?

I changed into fire when we entered the forest. It kept most animals away from us, especially those annoying wolves. The part we were walking wasn't the most dangerous one either, so we didn't had to fear an ursa major or something.

By the way, Sunset's only 'comment' on me being able to fly was a simple shrug.

"So, what's the plan? We going in, kick some ass and then...?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Can't you think ahead? There must be something valuable she's hiding, something powerful."

_Think ahead? Says the girl who wanted to go in without any supplies, who thought she could conquer Equestria with a bunch of zombie teenagers. Not to mention YOU DIDN'T THINK AHEAD AT ALL! Something valuable? Gimme a break._

There was a sudden growl we were all too familiar with. This time there were three of those timberwolves, but honestly, they're nothing too serious for us. One they were still frightened because of the fire coming out of my wings. Two Sunset was a powerful unicorn. Three I could fly now.

Flying with fire wings was pretty much like with normal ones, aside from it making no sense. Fire isn't some kind of mass, its energy in form of heat or...something along those lines. Sunset grilled the first one with a small fireball, while I assaulted the second one from the air, by attacking its back. It howled at the pain and its friend wanted to help my victim, but my boss had a little fun and set the tail of the third one on fire.

In the end, we had one pile of ashes, one wolf running like crazy, like you see with cartoon characters on TV, when their ass is on fire.

"Weaklings." Sunset stated before she casually walked ahead with a sadistic grin on her face. Oh brother, looks like my work just got a tiny bit harder.

When we arrived at the bridge I flew over it, now that I had the option. No way I'm going to step on that thing again. Since it wasn't even lunch time our little shadow pony was wherever she was. Asleep? Not in this realm?

We went into the ball hall, but didn't found her there. We didn't hear any strange sounds, giggles, no door slammed shut behind us or anything. Sunset decided to spend the time in the library, while I flew around. I needed to learn how to fly at higher speed and still remain in control, not to mention I needed to learn how to counter wind currents.

Around when I got hungry, I joined Sunset in the library and ate one of those flower sandwiches. Not bad, I gotta admit. I wondered if meat now tasted not so good anymore for me. "You don't want to eat something?" I asked.

Sunset glared at me and shocked me with her magic.

"OW!"

"Stop acting like you're my mother!" she growled and resumed into reading her book. "Jeez, it was just a friendly question." I muttered. I decided to eat outside, away from ms grumpy mare.

XIII

**3rd person POV**

"They what?!" Twilight exclaimed.

Fluttershy hid behind her wings. "I-I'm sorry if I said something wrong."

"Nah, it's alright sugercube." Applejack reassured by putting a hoof on her back. The mane six were gathered in Twilight's library, talking about Luna's visit, when Fluttershy spoke up and told them about where the two newcomers had been going the day before and the present day. They obviously didn't know how dangerous that forest was.

"Oooh, I know! Maybe they're preparing a secret surprise party for everypony!" Pinkie gasped loudly. "So THAT'S why they didn't want to have a party. They think they can throw a bigger party than I can!" That's Pinkie Logic for you. The rest just groaned.

"Okay everypony, back on topic. We need to find those two before anything happens to them." Twilight declared. "Why should we?" Rainbow was still upset that they made Pinkie Pie cry.

"Rainbow Dash!" Said pink pony was now face to face with the cyan blue pegasus. "This is a challenge! We need to go to their party, so I can invite them to mine and throw them a bigger one!" Pinkie pumped her hoof into the air.

"Darling" Rarity spoke up "even if we decide to help them, we don't know where they are."

"I know!" Pinkie exclaimed. Everypony looked at her. "You do?" all five asked.

"Uh huh. They're preparing a party at the old scary looking castle!"

"First of, they're most likely not preparing a party. Second, why would they go there?" Twilight asked. "Arcie asked me the way."

Every pony looked at each other.

"You know Twi, I just noticed something." Spike came out of the kitchen with something to drink for everyone. Of course he presented it extra elegant for Rarity, making a bow and all. "You know those whole nightmares started just the night before those two arrived." That got everypony on edge.

"Alright!" Rainbow exclaimed while flying into the air. "I'm gonna give them the bucking of their lives!"

"Rainbow Dash, wait!" Twilight exclaimed, but she was already gone into the distance. "Let's go everypony."

XIII

**Sunset's POV**

I hate to admit it, but it was a good idea bringing the sandwiches with us. I forgot how good daisy sandwiches are. Back in my human body, they really tasted awful. I may have been not acting like it, but I was actually listening during the lessons, where I learned why humans cannot eat plans, although there was a kind of sugar in them too.

I was enjoying the quite of the castle, when it ended all too soon. I growled as I slammed the book shut with my magic. What the hell did he do? This time I would really hurt him for interrupting my studies.

"What the hell girl?!" I heard him exclaiming.

"Don't play stupid! I know exactly it was you two who are making those nightmares!" I heard another voice and recognized it as the one of Rainbow Dash. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was doing here and moreover what she was talking about.

She was hovering above Arc, pinning him on the ground and looking like an aggravated bull. It was actually quite funny, especially when the smell of burnt flesh entered my nose. You see Arc had yet to change into light form for the upcoming fight and Rainbow Dash pinned him down, by standing on his wings. Since this world is practically ruled by clichés I just had to wait.

Smoke was coming up from Rainbow's hooves and she started sniffing the air. Her eyes widened and she slowly looked down, staring at least three seconds at her hooves, before: "OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!" flying into the air and charging with a sonic rainboom into the river in front of the castle.

I had a good laugh. I then noticed Celestia was already lowering the sun.

"Get up, it's time to teach a filly to respect the adults."

"Urrgh, as long as I don't have to deal with Ms. Crash Test Dummy..." he growled, rolling around. Within a second he had changed into his light form.

"You really look gay that way." I snickered. We walked towards the ball room, carefully avoiding the traps. Arc really enjoyed his new ability to fly, but it was still a little unprofessional. He couldn't keep a straight height and one or two times he even hit the ceiling.

When we arrived in the hallway before the ballroom, Luna's moon was completely up. The shadow pony had awakened and was ready to play. The ballroom doors opened on their own, inviting us for a dance.

Like last time, after we entered the doors closed and the giggling could be heard. Then the voice spoke to us: _"You came! Aw, we're going to have so much fun together."_

"Told ya, creepy." Arc muttered to me.

"Shut up and focus." I hit him over the head. The shadows began moving and turned into four earth shadow ponies. I snorted. "This again? You're not very creative, are you?"

The four ponies charged. I simply shot four light elemental balls towards them, which exploded when I magically told them to do so. Arc took off into the air. Since two shadow ponies focused on him, I only managed to take out two with a single strike.

I didn't know what Arc was going for, but he was just flying around circling his enemies, who jumped after him, but never came high enough. Just when I was about to call out to the slowpoke, he suddenly flew towards one of the jumping ponies and hit him good in the side. The pony flew a little away and landed hard on the ground. Before it got up, Arc finished it off and took off into the airm before the second one could get him.

Bored shitless out of my mind, I shot a beam at the other one, hurting it enough, so Arc only needed to punch it one time.

"Next time hurry up." I growled at him.

_"Yeah, you're even slower than Rainbow Dash." _The voice called out.

"Who are you calling slow?!" A voice suddenly shouted. The doors were slammed open and the annoying mare was back. "There you are!" she exclaimed pointing at us.

_"Yay! More playmates!"_

"Wha-...? Who's voice is that?!" she exclaimed.

She never got her answer. The shadows started twisting again, forming three pegasi shadows and three unicorn shadow ponies. "What the hay?!" The doors behind her slammed shut and a visible barrier was put up this time around every wall and window. A black magic aura.

"What's going on?!"

"Just sit back and enjoy the show." I grinned and faced the three unicorns. However only one shot at me, the other two focused on the pegasi. One of the enemy pegasi also charged at me, meaning at each on each of us, came three enemies. I didn't expect Rainbow Dash to be even able to handle one of them, since she wasn't able to use elemental magic.

I quick teleported out of the way of the pegasus and wanted to get rid of the unicorn. Unfortunately the thing knew how to use shields. It would have been too easy I guess. I teleported again before the pegasus could hit me and I shot at the thing, leaving me exposed to the unicorn. It used the chance to land a hit on me with dark magic. I was thrown away a bit, but was actually quite fine. Only my pride was hurt, which was bad enough.

Growling I got up. Whoever created those things, didn't give them much power. So if I put enough pressure on the shield of the unicorn I would eventually break through. However I was reminded of the pegasus, which distracted me once again in my thinking, by charging at me.

_Come on mare, you're Sunset Shimmer. You can come up with something. You always do._

I got a lucky hit on the pegasus, but the shot only scratched him. Growling I out up a shield, blocking another shot from the unicorn. The pegasus and the unicorn never attacked together, only one at a time. I almost found no time to attack between dodging and blocking attacks.

At one point Arc and I stood back to back to each other. "This is getting annoying." he growled.

Then it hit me. I remembered the first time Arc used his powers and jumped into the river, when he was on fire. And how he felt better after I fished him out and he changed to water. "Arc, change to darkness!" I shouted before teleporting away, while he flew away. He hesitated a moment before doing so. The energy loss forced him on to the ground.

His mane and tail became a dark purple, his eyes a demonic red and his wings were made of black and violet energy. My plan worked almost too perfect. He was so exhausted, he couldn't dodge the next dark lightning.

Almost instantly he wasn't breathing heavily anymore. Instead he let out a slight moan and smiled. "Oh yeah, much better."

I ran behind him and another magic attack hit him. Since the enemies were made of darkness, Arc could easily endure the physical attacks of the pegasi. So I just used him as a wall and shot multiple star shaped lights, a slightly more complex spell. They exploded in mid air and hit our enemies. I was exhausted, but we had almost won.

The only guys left, were the ones who were beating up the rainbow pony. Arc changed to light again and assaulted the unicorn from behind, while I sniped the pegasus.

The fight was over.

I was a little exhausted, Arc was better, but he didn't absorb too much and Rainbow Dash was unconsciously laying on the ground, several bruises all over her body and here and there a magic burn.

"You think she's going to be okay?" Arc asked.

"...Can't say I've seen worse, but from the books I read, I'd say she'll be fine." I shook at my head. What was I thinking? "Who cares anyway? It's not like we can do something for her. Come on, let's finish that filly."

Arc hesitated, but eventually sighed. "I guess we can always justify it would have been too dangerous to carry her around and more logical to finish the source of the threat."

You mean you need to justify it to yourself you weakling. I better keep my eyes on him. Not that his emotions get the better of him one day. I smirked as I remembered my safety measurement. He seemed to have forgotten about it already.

After a short break, Rainbow was still unconscious, we headed towards the end of the ballroom and found two staircases leading up. One was destroyed, but the second one still seemed to be intact.

"I have a feeling our host of this little party is waiting upstairs." I stated, frankly the obvious and walked ahead. Arc followed me up the tower. Nothing happened on the way up, which set us both on each.

When we stood in front of the door, I stopped Arc in his tracks, by putting a hoof in front of him.

"What now?" he asked. Ignoring his question I scanned the door with my magic for any traps. I found none, which didn't need to mean anything, but still. I carefully opened the door, revealing a totally dust filled room. We carefully entered the room and found it abandoned.

There was a bed, an old bookshelf, some pillows on the ground and a chimney. But that was it. "The dust isn't disturbed. No one was in here for centuries." I concluded. "Except of course we're dealing with a ghost here." I added.

Arc wasn't afraid, but more intrigued. Okay, he made some points up, after showing so many emotions. Our hooves let the dust fly up from the ground as we looked around.

"Sunset."

I looked over to my sidekick and found him sitting on an old chair, reading some kind of book on a study desk. I levitated the book to the ground and made myself comfortable on a pillow. Arc dragged one next to mine and we looked inside.

_"Dear diary,_

_today...I can't find words to describe what happened today. It started pretty normal. Tia raised the sun, we enjoyed our breakfast and were speaking about the gala, which had been held tonight, when captain Fire Blaze" _I rolled my eyes. "Wind Arc all of the sudden doesn't sound so uncreative anymore." I needed to let this one out. _"entered the dining hall. He informed us about..."_

"The text is too old." I said. I skipped through the pages, but found nothing more that could be read. The book was just too old.

"Let's go back."

Downstairs, we found Rainbow Dash in the same position we left her, but the barriers were still up. I frowned. "We can't teleport outside."

**"Why would you?"**

The two of us tensed up and looked around. "I have a bad feeling about this..." Arc muttered. The shadows started moving and I won't even bother you with long descriptions. In front of us appeared a mini version of Nightmare Moon, including the armor.

**"The real fun starts now!" **The filly declared grinning.

Arc and I took our positions, so we flanked her from both sides. She may be a filly, but she was a thousand years old. So shut up about child abuse.

Since Arc couldn't do much he just charged blindly at the filly, which took off into the air and struck him with a spell from behind and hit his neck. He didn't even scream, he just lost consciousness.

I shot a spell at her, but secretly already looked for a way out of this mess. I hate to admit it. She just played with me. I thought since she was just a fragment of Nightmare Moon, I thought I would be able to defeat her.

She flew around, every now and then shot a weak elemental spell at me, but mostly just dodge, showing off her wings.

Then finally one shot hit her or at least should have hit her, but it went straight through her, like she actually was a ghost!

"What?!" I screamed.

The filly giggled madly and did a small looping in the air. **"Whoopsie, I forgot to mention you can't hurt me." **Her expression became serious. **"Not like this. But where's the fun in winning a game before it even began?" **she asked.

I just growled, hiding my fear at my best.

**"The more the merrier! Let's have some real fun! In my realm!"**


	6. Chapter 6

_**A rather unpleasant dream**_

**3rd person POV**

Rainbow Dash groaned, as she tried to get up. Unfortunately her legs weren't able to support the rest of her body and she immediately collapsed to the ground. She muttered a few curses, as she was lying on the uncomfortable ground.

She was barely aware of her surroundings, so she didn't notice her friends calling out to her. She only noticed some hot breaths on her fur and then something hard touching her head. The hard thing started to get warm and all of the sudden her pain was going away. Slowly opening her eyes, Rainbow saw Princess Luna hovering above her, looking concerned.

"Princess Luna...?" Rainbow Dash breathed out.

"Easy Miss Dash. I am not as good with healing spells as my sister."

"I'm fine...really..." Rainbow got up, yet was about to fall down again. Luckily Applejack arrived in time to support her friend. "Dash, you better listen ta Princess Luna. You looked really beaten up jus' a sec ago."

"Rainbow Dash." Twilight walked up to her rainbow maned friend with worry on her expression. She was currently suppressing her anger of her friend running off like that. "What happened here? You need to tell us."

Rainbow rubbed her forehead, trying to remember the last few hours. "It's okay sugercube. Take your time." AJ assured.

"Ah!" Rainbows eyes lit up. "That's right. I uhh...found them here. And then there was a voice..."

"A voice?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow rubbed her head. "I think...I don't really remember that good, but it sounded like a filly. AH! There were those ponies! They...kinda looked like they're made of shadows...sorry, that's all I got."

Luna closed her eyes. "It seems like dark magic is at work here." She opened her eyes and scanned the area. "Hurry bearers of the elements. We need to find those two ponies. I have a feeling if we find them, we will find answers."

She located the source of the magic in one of the old dungeons of the castle.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

"Urgh, anyone got the license of that truck?" I asked into the air. For some reason I still felt the impact, but else I was really fine. I slowly got up and shook myself like a dog. When I opened my eyes I immediately noticed that something was wrong. Beneath me was grass. Secondly I was in Ponyville all of the sudden.

A groan caught my attention. I saw Sunset slowly getting up and scanning her surroundings confused. "What happened?" she asked.

"Don't ask me." I replied. "Just woke up myself. Are you alright?" I asked.

She held up her hoof and looked at it for several seconds. "I feel great. Like, top-form."

**"Of course you do."**

The two of us jerked around finding mini Nightmare Moon approaching us. "What exactly do you want?" Sunset snarled. To her credit she didn't sound scared at all, only pissed. Nightmare Moon smiled genuinely.

**"I want to play. It's no fun to play when you're exhausted or have no chance of winning. Besides, as I said, the more the merrier."**

"What? More shadow ponies?" I complained.

**"Nah, they're pretty boring. You know we're here in the realm of dreams and everyone in Ponyville is dreaming the same dream. Now we can all play together!"**

She laughed and suddenly her body changed. Within seconds she looked exactly like Princess Luna and took off into the air.

"What exactly is her plan?" Sunset wondered.

**"CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!" **The fake Luna shouted with the Royal Canterlot Voice. **"THE PERPETARTORS OF THE NIGHTMARES ARE WITHIN OUR MIDST!"**

Pictures of me and Sunset appeared in the sky for everyone to see.

**"WE NEED TO CAPTURE THEM BY ANY NECESSARY MEANS TO PREVENT THEM FROM HURTIN MORE PONIES!"**

"YOU GOTTA BE SHITTING ME?!" the two of us exclaimed. The ponies started opening their windows and stared into the night sky. I heard Sunset growling in frustration and she also muttered something about raping that filly. I'll pretend I misheard the last part.

"There they are!" Bonbon shouted and pointed her hoof at us.

Sunset and I gave a final glare at the fake Luna before splitting up.

**Chasing Arc:**

You know the good thing about Ponyville? 79% of the habitants are earth ponies, the rest splits up between pegasi and unicorns. The former was now after me, chasing through the air. I duly noted Rainbow Dash not being with them for some reason, but I still had the problem of not being properly trained like the others. I mean hello, I've only been a pegasus for a few days.

Luckily I had the advantage of my cutie mark. All I needed to do was to change into wind and I was faster than any other pegasus, but at the same time I couldn't maneuver at all, only go straight ahead.

So you see, when I wanted to turn I either could lose control and crash into something or I needed to change my element, making it possible for the other pegasi to catch up. I changed to lightning by the way. Using anything but light and darkness didn't waste that much energy.

At one point Derpy of all ponies caught up, coming sideways. She crashed into my wing, causing her to get electrocuted (she still smiled; apparently she thought this was a game of chase) and me hitting the ground, because I couldn't find my balance. Seeing stars I got up, only to find the pegasi hovering above me, ready to strike me down.

"Any lasts words?" One of them asked.

"Ever wondered why Luna is sending you after us, instead of doing HER job herself?"

"Shut up."

I mentally rolled my eyes. Should have thought reasoning doesn't work with them at the moment. I was kinda short in options. I could try to break through the blockade, but that would be difficult. Running wouldn't get me anywhere. To my left was a lake.

...

Meh, might as well try.

I changed into water and dived into the lake. Although this was the realm of dreams, it still felt like water and gave me a power boost. I still couldn't breathe under water though. I made a mental note to try it in the real world again, in case Nightmare Moon changed the rules of this world.

The other pegasi followed me, but in the water I had the advantage. It gave me a boost, thanks to my element, so I could fly quickly into the air without worrying about wet feathers. As fast as I could I got to the surface and started flying into the air. After getting some height, I changed into wind and made a good distance from my chasers, before hiding behind a cloud.

Taking a little break, I changed into lightning again and rested a bit on the cloud I was hiding. I saw various ponies looking at the ground and to her credit Nightmare Moon, AKA Luna, was looking around too, but not into the air. I had a feeling she only did it half assed. In the distance I saw some lights going off.

_Looks like Sunset is dealing with them in a different way._

"There he is!"

"Give me a fucking break!" I shouted before jetting away without even looking from where they were coming from.

_This is pointless. I need to get rid of them for good, so we can challenge Nightmare Moon directly._

I stayed in my element this time, because I tried to outmaneuver them. Well, as a bigger I could only try left, right, a little up and a little down.

One pegasus suddenly appeared in front of me. Okay, this guy really asked for it. I charged at him, while I had lightning out and he charged at me. Our hooves connected to each other's face, but while I only huffed, he screamed as the electricity went through his body. Sparks came out of him and a second later he dropped to the ground. I didn't noticed the others stopping in their pursuit of me, until I found myself at the center of Ponyville. Seeing as I had room to breathe, I hid inside the town hall.

**Chasing Sunset (Sunset's POV)**

The little bitch would pay. I'd make sure of that. Strange enough in this realm the laws of magic or physics at least seemed to be the same, so I managed to teleport myself away fairly easy. This town had not many unicorns, but enough earth ponies, so no matter where I teleported, I would always run into a group of them.

I changed tactics fairly quickly. None of the unicorns was a skilled magic user. For some reason Twilight Sparkle was not with them, but that was something to worry about later. I shot multiple stars made of electricity. It was difficult to learn, but once you learned it, it was pretty easy to use. It doesn't cost much energy, but in return doesn't do much damage either.

There were sudden high pitched screams and their manes looked pretty funny. The group I shot backed away slowly in fear, making me smile deviously. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the moment with taunting, since from behind some stallion decided to be brave and pushed me to the ground.

"I got her!"

"You think!" I snarled and with my next spell I didn't held back. I burned his chest and pushed him off from me with my hooves. I made a quick teleportation to get a little more room for myself. The barrels gave me an idea. I levitated them up and threw the things at the earth pony group.

Would this be outside the dream realm, several limbs and ribs would have been broken. A unicorn copied me and threw a few small rocks at me. It was really bad aim, as they flew above me. In return I threw the last barrel towards the mare, which ran away screaming.

More earth ponies appeared, screaming "Get her!", "You monster!" and so on. Seeing as they had the numbers I teleported away, this time farther.

I was hiding behind some potted plants and thought about my options. Obviously I needed to defeat Nightmare Moon, but with the entire townsfolk as a distraction, she had the better pawns. There are many ways in winning in chess, but with only a queen and a bishop at your disposal this would be difficult.

The only possible way was to lure Nightmare Moon out of hiding. An idea formed in my head, but I would have to meet up with Arc. I heard some hoofsteps and probably found the worst sneak attack in history. There were three fillies, about 10 meters away and they tried to be as silent as possible. They were also wearing some stupid capes.

"Playing the heroes?" I asked, levitating them all up. It was just too cute as to how they struggled. "Let go of us!" The orange one shouted. "Okay." I shrugged. The fall would only possibly kill them. They screamed, but before they hit the ground I caught them again. And they continued screaming, just like classic cartoon.

_Note to self: visit Lauren Faust and BURN her_

"Let go of them, you ponynapper!" I looked up, just in time to see a pegasus charging at me. I teleported away, letting go of the fillies in the process and started running. Too much teleportation would just consume my entire magic.

Of course, being in the air the pegasus spotted me pretty soon and shouted for help. This was all just getting on my nerves. I couldn't really fight back, there were just too many. Not to mention they were my future subjects. When I kill them, then I have nothing to reign over.

I turned my head and shot a small spell. It purposely hit the ground in order to form a dust cloud. I shot inside the dust cloud a transformation spell, one that would last only a few seconds, but the effect would be the same.

I shot another beam to the ground, this time closer, so I would be covered in the cloud. Maybe somepony saw the teleportation spell, but they still couldn't predict where I teleported to.

I found myself behind an important building. Now, following cartoon (and if I'm really honest pony logic), no one would look for me in there as long as no one would see me going inside. I silently closed the door and turned around. I haven't been inside this building but it was spacious. And I was not alone. I prepared an invisible spell, until I noticed the wings of the pegasus stallion. Small sparks came out of them, no, his wings were made out of them. It was Arc.

"Did you lose them?" I asked.

His head jerked up, but he sighed in relief when he noticed it was me.

"I think." He replied. We walked into the middle of the room. "I have a plan. We need to bait out Nightmare Moon. For that-"

**"So, sorry."**

I jerked around and found the fake Princess Luna hovering above us. **"But the game is over."**

Cue, the front door and the two backdoors opened. All the ponies of Ponyville slowly came walking into the hall.

"Grr, an anti-teleportation field." I growled.

"They're really dumb, aren't they? I mean, the only two who have the power to control dreams are Luna and Nightmare Moon. You DO know this?"

"You're wasting your breath." I told him and charge up my magic. We were standing back to back to each other with the ponies coming closer. Just as I was about to shoot the first one, there was a shout.

_**"ENOUGH IMPOSTOR!"**_

The entire building was shaking. "I think I see double." Arc looked up. We all followed his gaze and found a second Luna plus the elements of harmony flying in mid-air on the other side. They looked like ghosts.

"Princess Luna?"

"Princess Twilight is with her?"

"But isn't this Princess Luna?"

**"SILENCE!" **The true Luna roared.

**"Bonus round!" **Fake Luna shifted and turned back into Mini Nightmare Moon.

"NIGHTMARE MOON?!" Almost everypony exclaimed.

Nightmare Moon looked down at us and giggled. **"You two are so much fun! Are you ready for the last round?"**

I shot a spell at her and it connected this time. She was a little startled, but caught herself. "How about here and now?" I shouted. My vision went black for some reason.

XIII

I jerked up, waking up from that dream. I have been lying on the ground and the first thing I noticed was that I was in a cell. The next thing was that Luna was hovering above me. "Princess Luna?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"You seem fine." she talked to me softly.

"It takes more than a dream to take me out." I replied and got up. I noticed the elements of harmony standing outside of the cell, looking worried. A groan caught my attention. Luna stood aside, allowing me to have a look on Arc, who was in his normal form. "You know, I thought she would confront us with our biggest nightmares." He said, while getting up. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Let me guess, your biggest nightmare is a gigantic plush bunny."

"Nah, it's my dad. I think. I'm not really sure." he shrugged.

We walked out of the cell and were soon surrounded by Luna and the mane six. "I think it is time you explain your actions." Luna spoke in a commanding tone. Good, so Celestia didn't tell her anything about me.

"You're a princess? Well, I didn't vote for you."

...

I smacked Arc over the head, extra hard. "Just trying to lighten up the situation. Speaking off." He changed into light form. I hit him again. "One more bad pun and I'll turn your brain into liquid."

"I have a brain?"

Pinkie Pie started giggling madly. The other mane six and me facehoofed. "You, shut up." I turned towards Princess Luna and bowed respectfully. "My apologies, princess." Luna waved off. "I think I asked you a question."

"Again, my apologies. In Ponyville we heard the legend about the Pony of Shadows, a part of Nightmare Moon, which was supposed to be left behind on...that fateful day."

Luna didn't show any emotion. "Go on."

"Out of curiosity we decided to investigate and it turned out to be true. Needless to say it did. However, we severely underestimated our opponent. I thought since it was only a small fragment, we would be able to deal with her."

"Brave. Brave, but very foolish." Luna stated. She closed her eyes. "If this is really Nightmare Moon we are facing, than it is my duty and mine alone to handle her."

"But princess-!" Twilight spoke up, but was interrupted with a hoof in front of her face. "No, you all wait at the entrance."

"But-!" Rainbow Dash spoke up, but was interrupted.

"I said this is MY responsibilty."

I gritted my teeth in frustration. There was nothing I could do against a princess. Even if I go in there, when Nightmare Moon is defeated, I won't be able to get any magic or anything of value for me, while she is watching.

Frustrated I trotted next to Wing Arc, while we walked upstairs. If only Luna wouldn't have shown up. One more day or an hour! I just needed one hour and I would have what I wanted. Fate however seemed to be on my side tonight.

At the entrance hall the mini Nightmare Moon was already waiting for us, with a surprise.

"Sweetiebelle!"

"Applebloom!"

"Scootaloo!"

"You monster..." Princess Luna growled. Nightmare had them all in her magic grip (they were fast asleep) and was grinning madly.

**"Release them at once!"**

**"Sure." **Nightmare replied with a happy smile. **"If I can have fun, I'll let them go!"**

"You..." Luna growled.

"Let me guess..." I walked up. "It's time for the bonus round."

**"Yup! The other ponies are all boring. No one wants to play with me. But I had so much fun with you two! Come on, let's play! I'll be fair this time! You two against me in the dream realm."**

"How dare you..."

"Princess Luna" Arc spoke up "I don't think we have much to say in this matter. 'Sides, death makes life worth living after all."

"Where did you get that one?"

"Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I think..."

"I had to ask..."

"Ya can't do dat! Dat's a trap!" Applejack shouted.

"For once, I belief it isn't." I replied. Arc and I walked up. This was it.

_**A/N: Nightmare Moon Arc will end next chapter. Oh jeez, now I have to make up some villains. Sombra is dead, Chrysaliz comes later and Discord is still good. Oh and we'll leave Ponyville soon too.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Sorry, I'm not good in writing fight scenes. I'll give my best and I hope I can improve that in the future.**_

_**Dream Fight and Departure**_

**Sunset's POV**

Arc and I were standing in front of some kind of portal Nightmare Moon created and went through, ahead of us. The two of us eyed it cautiously, feeling the gazes of the other mares on us. Arc changed into his light form, shaking himself a little after it was done.

"You used magic." The two of us turned around. It was Princess Luna who had spoken up.

_Don't mess this up. _I glared at him, which he noticed from the corner of his eyes. "It's my cutie mark. Comes in handy in situations like this."

"What exactly does it do, apart from obviously changing your appearance? This is most peculiar."

"She talks better than in the show." Arc whispered. To the princess herself he said. "Oh well, for starters my wings are made out of light now. Also my physical attacks get extra light magic damage and I can absorb light to heal myself. The downside is, darkness is double as effective on me right now."

"Mhmm. I still haven't heard your name, young one."

"It's Wing Arc, princess. When you think about, we ponies kind of have a habit of giving each other names that kind of predict our cutie marks."

That's because this stupid universe was made for stupid 5 year old girls. "I think we should go, before she decides to come out, where we can't fight her." I pointed out.

I turned around and Arc copied the gesture. "Good luck, young ones."

"Luck is relative." I hit him over the head, again.

The two of us walked through. It felt a bit like teleportation, when we found ourselves in the empty ballroom of the castle. The thing was this room wasn't destroyed. It looked like we went back in time, before Luna turned first into Nightmare Moon. Said filly was walking down the stairs, eyeing us with excitement.

**"We're going to have so much fun." **she smiled and kept her eyes on me. I looked back with a straight face. There was no way I was going to be intimidated by a filly, alicorn or not. "Don't worry, little one." I spoke to her softly. "Soon your magic will be mine."

The filly laughed. **"Power?" **All of the sudden she sounded like an adult. **"And what about you? Why are you here, so far away from home?"** She turned towards Arc, whose face had been neutral the entire time until now. It suddenly became very relaxed and he shrugged.

"The payment is good. She does dental."

Nightmare laughed. **"I'm sure she does. You want my power? Come and get it failed student of Celestia."**

Arc and I took this as an indication that the battle officially started. As before he and I flanked the little annoyance from both sides. She was the first one to make a move by flying upwards and her horn glowing up. She shot ball a small and I mean a _small _darkenergy beam towards Arc, who dodged by taking off into the air. I myself shot a few light balls towards her, but Nightmare dodged them quite easily.

Arc used the momentum and charged at her, hitting her armor. I shot a few short lights at her, but hit Arc in the process, who absorbed the attack. Nightmare herself didn't limit herself to magic, but also charged down at me. I put up a quick shield, but she broke through and hit me in the face, causing me to land on the ground.

I got up immediately afterwards. It didn't hurt that much. Still: _Note to self: practice defense magic._

I didn't admit it at that time, but Celestia had been right. I should have learned some of the other "lower" spells as well. I shot a stronger spell at the filly. Ah, having "friendly fire" shut off is awesome. My spell collided with Moon's spell and there was a small explosion in the air.

"Arc now!" I shouted. He charged, but I underestimated our opponent's speed. She was way more experienced in flying. She did the same as last time. She shot a spell at his neck and within seconds he was on the ground.

"Ouch..." he grumbled. He was not unconscious, but wasn't moving much either. I shot another bunch of spells towards her, but she shot back, causing more explosions. Suddenly she jolted up into the air, her horn charging up with energy.

I shot another bunch of all kinds of light spells at her. It connected and I think I saw her flinch a little, but it was not enough. She stopped midway of charging. Before she had the chance to shoot, I teleported away. However I wasn't her target, Arc was.

I looked at the scene with only one eye. The dark energy surrounded him and then some blue/black clouds surrounded his body. Nightmare Moon landed in front of me.

**"So much for your friend." **she smirked. Was she...panting? Surely casting spells and illusions the entire night took out on a pony. Even though she was an alicorn, she was only a filly and I got my powers restored by Luna earlier.

"I don't need any friends." I smirked myself. "Getting tired? I know you only have" I shot a spell before finishing my sentence. Breaking out of cliché was the best way to deal with them. "Only a part of your true strength." I finished.

My attack had taken her off guard, but she still smiled. **"Not bad." **While she said this she charged at me, while casting a spell at the same time. I simply teleported away, since both attacks just went straight ahead.

I shot another spell, an ice spell for a change. I planned on freezing her hooves to the ground, but I only hit her ethereal tail. It didn't even freeze. That filly was just so hard to hit with her small size. The two of us charged up our horns, ready to face off in a real duel off strength, when all of the sudden she was hit by something white.

"SURPRISE!" Arc announced, standing in front of me in his light form, looking as healthy as ever. "How...?"

"I changed into darkness, when no one was looking. Still couldn't move for 1 or 2 minutes." He explained and then copied the two of us into charging against the recovering alicorn. She rolled away, her armor making some loud noise.

She shot kind of a small red laser towards Arc, but missed due to bad aiming, after rolling. "Okay, THAT you clearly copied from my memories." Arc accused, though it was anyone's guess what he meant with that.

I shot a few fireballs at the filly, while Arc took off into the air. Nightmare Moon did the same and shot dark energy after him. She was clearly the better flier.

Arc changed into his dark form and let himself getting hit by a few spells. However, instead of changing targets, Nightmare Moon shot artificial electricity at him, causing him to scream up and fall to the ground.

I shot some lightning myself, but only one hit and it was the helmet. It must be a magic helmet, since the electricity still didn't connect with the rest of her body. Growling I tried to aim my next spells at her exposed body parts, but again our spells collided. Was she toying with me?

Arc used the chance to fly around the spells. He changed into wind and made a quick dash at Nightmare Moon. The filly flew a bit away, but caught herself mid-air. I shot another bunch of light spells at her and they all connected. But again it was the stupid armor that took the hit. I definitely aimed for the exposed parts, I was sure. I mean, I was able to hit her tail!

I was getting tired myself and for Arc changing back into light would take a lot of his stamina and make him useless. Nightmare Moon also was way too smart to use darkness on him, when he was in his dark form. Tartarus, her next attack was a strong light spell, surprising the both of us. I teleported to the end of the room as the light star exploded in the middle.

Arc got hit, letting out a short scream. "Damn it, it burns!" He growled and changed into fire. "That's it. You're finished."

I wholeheartedly agreed. Time to come up with the big guns. Arc charged at our opponent and got shot by a dark spell, causing him to fly straight back from where he came from. It gave me enough time to cast my ice spell, which covered Nightmare Moon in a block of ice, before I let it implode.

Why did I do that? First a being like Nightmare Moon, even a weakened one, is capable of escaping such a prison in a matter of moments. Second, the ice shards managed to hurt her.

On another note, she was pissed off by now. She flew up and charged in a matter of seconds. I still had to recover from my spell and Arc was too much of a chicken to charge. Nightmare shot and blasted the ground, drawing a black line. I ran as fast as my hooves could take me away from that beam, while Arc took off into the air.

At some point she charged again for a second and this time her beam followed Arc in the air. The glasses didn't shatter, for some reason. Most likely Nightmare didn't bother with too many details into keeping that illusion up. Arc managed to land without a scratch.

Nightmare stopped in her attack and landed softly on the ground, panting heavily. Seeing my chance I shot a large fire spell at her, making her scream for the short time the fire lasted around her. Arc hesitated a second before charging himself and giving that mare a good one two combination with his hooves.

All of us were now exhausted, not from the fight, but from the entire night.

_Time to put this to an end. _I thought, but Nightmare Moon had other plans. It all of the sudden became dark and before we knew the landscape had changed. I was human again all of the sudden and so was Arc. Looking around we seemed to be in some kind of town outskirt.

A bus just happened to arrive and a single man stepped out of the bus, holding a paper in his hand. He looked furious and walked towards our direction or rather towards Arc's direction. Strange seeing his fists on fire.

"Oh, THAT day." Arc said rolling his eyes. He took in a deep breath and let out a deep sigh.

"What is this?" The man spoke up, holding the paper. Instead of answering Arc kicked the man where it hurts him the most. I am no expert, since I'm a girl, but doesn't men don't have something they call "man pride"?

Hit next kicked the crouching man's face. "For the last time. It's none of your business." Arc spoke up and kicked the man one last time, before he disappeared in a dark cloud, leaving the paper. Curiously I picked it up.

"A police report?" I spoke aloud.

The scenery changed and the paper disappeared from my hand. When the lights were turned on again, we were in Celestia's throne room. Celestia and Twilight were looking down at us, smirking. And we were ponies again.

"What are you doing here?" Celestia spoke to me, disgusted? "I don't need you anymore." She said dismissingly. "I have already found a proper and more talented replacement."

"What?" I growled.

"Don't let it get to you." Arc advised.

_That's right Sunset. This is just an illusion. You know Celestia. She's too much of a softy._

"Look at her, so much talent, so much more grace than you'll ever have."

"You clearly haven't seen 'Lesson Zero', have you Nightmare Moon?" Arc asked in a deadpan matter. "Do you honestly think you can ever have the power you want so much? You're just a spoiled child, who wants everything giving to her. You're too scared to even face me."

"SHUT UP!" I shouted and shot a spell at her. It didn't do anything on her. Twilight laughed like a maniac. "Wow. Now I know why you were so glad that you have been gotten rid of her. She NEVER would have been able to do what I did."

"Going crazy over a doll? Not giving your assistant the respect he deserves? Going crazy over the simplest of things?" Again Arc was asking those things in a deadpan matter.

Celestia approached me, looking down at me mockingly. "Why don't you go back to your high school and play the high and mighty princess? The princess who has nothing."

"I said SHUT UP!" I blindly charged at her, trying to pierce her with my horn, but was stopped by some kind of shield.

"You're weak Sunset Shimmer. Weak and useless. I don't need you anymore."

"Tch, like I need you." I retorted. Celestia smiled. "I can literally hear you crying. Why else would you cry yourself into sleep every night or-"

A hoof connected with her snout. Arc looked at me, disappointed. "You know, you really are weak if you can't see through that illusion." He smirked. "It is kind of obvious, _Sunny." _He was a frozen block afterwards. He may have been fire, but his weakness was water, not ice. The ice melted and he changed into water quickly.

I didn't really notice any of this, my focus turned to Twilight, sitting high and mighty on the throne. "You think you're something better? Well I at least am nopony's pet. Oh and Nightmare? Celestia has ruby eyes, not completely red ones."

I looked directly into her eyes. "I know you're not the real Celestia. You're just a weak filly, who's about to get taught a lesson." I smirked. Time to end this charade for real. I channeled all my remaining magic into that one spell. "Did you know that Celestia copied this one spell **I **invented from me?"

My magic surrounds me and slowly takes on form on my back. It also changes color. Instead of my green, blue magic aura, it becomes orange. Phoenix colored wings appeared on my back.

"What the hell?!" Arc exclaimed.

With one strong flap I took off into the air. Nightmare Moon quickly dropped all illusions and prepared for a counterattack, only to get kicked by Arc.

Any more moment, was another one too late. I had fully charged my magic and headed down like a kamikaze towards Nightmare Moon, a trail of magic following me. I didn't particular used that move often, because it always backfired on me. The shockwave that came after impact sent me flying and luckily crashing into Wing Arc.

Another thing that backfired on me was after every time use that spell, I can't move for several minutes up to hours.

"Holy, freaking shit hell, out of Tom Clancy's ass, that was awesome." Arc exclaimed, throwing me off from him. "Ow..."

"Ooops, sorry. Hey, you alright?" he asked.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

Man, when you have opponents specialized on long ranged magic then you suck as a up and close fighter. I barely had any chances of hitting her and HOLY HELL WE'RE ALIVE!

We were still in the dream realm, though. Sunset didn't look like she was going to move anytime soon. Looking around I found the portal was back. At the place Nightmare Moon had been, were some shattered fragments of her armor.

"The armor..." Sunset breathed. "Bring...here..." she mumbled. I looked down at her and nodded. The fragments were pretty big, so it was no problem. Well almost, my legs started feeling really sore. The lack of sleep was worse enough, but include everything I went through. The adrenaline was just leaving my body, causing more and more parts of my body starting to ache.

By the time I was done, I was lying in front of Sunset, the shards between us.

"And now?" I asked. Sunset smirked evilly. Everyone could see the greet on her face. Normally I wouldn't even consider hanging out with her type. She was a school bully and I got bullied in the past. Not extremely, but enough to make me hate bullies.

As I said "normally" I wouldn't hang out with her kind.

Sunset's horn started to glow and so did the shards. Only the shards were glowing midnight blue. It was like the episode where Tirek absorbed the magic from the ponies or the one Chrysalis absorbed love from Shining Armor. By the way, love the idea of Cadance being a changeling from the very beginning. Someone please start writing a fic now. I can't since I have no PC in this world.

I kind of expected Sunset's eyes to turn blue or to become Nightmare Sunset or something. But, she was the same as always, only that she had gotten a little power boost from absorbing the magic, allowing her to stand. The armor turned into dust.

I slowly got up. "And now?" I asked.

"We're done here. And congratulations. You have proven not to be useless to your future princess."

...

"I'm not going to bow." She just hit me. By now it was an overused running gag.

XIII

It was a few minutes before sunrise, as we came back to reality. Everypony surrounded us, looking at us concerned.

"Are you alright?" Princess Luna asked.

"Tired as fuck." I replied.

"Alright, only a few scratches." Sunset said.

"What? Only a few scratches?! You fought Nightmare bucking Moon and only a few scratches?!" Rainbow said shocked.

"Darling, give the two some space." Rarity interjected.

"How did you do it?" a voice suddenly called. We all turned to the side to see Nightmare Moon appear, without any more.

"Oh come on! Again?!" I exclaimed.

"Wait." Luna extended her wings. "I'll deal with her."

"How did you break my illusion in less than a minute?" she asked. Oh that...

"Let's just say, I've settled with the past. But thanks for giving me the chance into kicking my dad. I really needed that stress reliever." I grinned. Everyone looked at me. "So, what now?" I asked. Nightmare Moon smiled sadly. "I'm going to be alone again, won't I?"

"Why don't go to Ponyville?" I suggested.

"WHAT?!"

"Are you crazy?!" Sunset of all ponies asked. I gave her a deadpan. "Sunset, I watched THAT show. THAT show. Besides, our Lunatic over here" I pointed at Princess Luna "got a second chance. Discord got one, so why not her too? I mean, what would you do if you were stuck up in a castle for a thousand years? Alone? Heck, everyone would go lunatic. OW!" It wasn't Sunset who hit me.

"So worth it..." I grinned.

XIII

The fillies had been brought back to Ponyville shortly after the fight started. They didn't even know they had been kidnapped. As for the rest of the citizens, they treated me and Sunset as heroes. Sunset totally enjoyed the audience and totally showed off. Luna explained the entire situation to them. She was also the one who teleported us back.

Inside the inn...

"We'll leave you two at rest for now. I am very thankful for what you have done for Ponyville and its citizens.

"Piece of cake." Sunset exaggerated.

I rolled my eyes. "Hey Nights." Yep, Nightmare Moon was with us. Seriously it only takes a little bit of logic to convince Luna into bringing the filly with her. Everyone was weary of her, but I found her pretty cute. Luna was also treating her pretty well. She knew how it was after all, being locked up on the moon for a thousand years. Too bad I wouldn't be able to troll her anymore today or in the near future,

"Yeah, Arc?"

"One on one, next time. Be prep." The filly grinned. "You got it."

Luna gave me a disapproving look. "What? She's over 1000 years old. She's an adult after the law."

I yawned. "Jokes aside, I'm ready to kill, only to get a good nap."

"Ya better do so. I don't wanna have y'all falling over mah cakes later."

"Yay! I can finally throw you two a party!" Pinkie cheered.

"Where's Sunset?" the pink pony asked. I snorted. "Probably upstairs. Oh, one last thing. Pinkie, what would you say, if I tell you I come from the other side of the fourth wall?"

_"*GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP*_

THIS IS SO EXCITING!" she shouted.

I sweatdropped. "The next thing you're going to tell me is that you know Lauren Faust personally."

"Okay, I won't."

XIII

**3rd person POV**

Celestia had just begun breakfast, when her sister finally returned in a flash of blue light. "Luna! Am I relieved." She sighed. "It is good to see you too, dearest sister. However, I did not come alone."

A little filly walked up from behind her. Celestia spit her tea in a comical way, seeing the black, ALICORN filly, with all too familiar cat-like eyes. "Nightmare Moon?!"

"Hey sis." The filly looked to the ground.

"Luna...? What?..." Celestia was at a loss for words. Luna calmly explained as to what the pegasus and unicorn had done. Nightmare Moon described the fight in further detail and also described the power the pegasus possessed. However she kept it a secret that he was a human. He was after all the first friend she made. He understood what she went through and he was ready from the very start to forgive her. Of course he had time to think about her situation way in advance, before he even knew that Equestria was real.

"After they destroyed the armor, the corruption was gone."

"Still, how were they able to win?"

Nightmare Moon spoke up again. "I was weakened from causing all those nightmares." She wasn't exactly proud of it anymore. "I used all the magic I collected in a thousand years and after that, well..."

Celestia walked over to the little filly and nuzzled her gently. "I'm sorry. Speak no more little sister. I promise you are not alone anymore."

It was easy for Celestia to comprehend the situation. The stallion must be one of the few ponies who look behind the facade.

"By the way, I have never heard the name of the unicorn mare. I would like to thank the two personally later."

"You did not?" Luna asked confused, but shrugged it off. "Her name is Sunset Shimmer."

This was the second time Celestia spit her tea. She immediately teleported to Ponyville.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

I stumbled into our cabin, finding Sunset asleep on the other bed. Bitch mare, didn't let me go to the toilet before we took the train. She was really so paranoid to think Celestia would appear the second she heard about Sunset. Well, maybe she was right.

_Arrgh, who cares! I'm tired as a fucking squirrel after a threesome! Brain. Shut down. NOW._


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Well I've thought of something to continue this. Also in case you're wondering we will go into the mirror world. I'm just not sure whether to put Chrysalis in front of it or behind.**_

_**Staying out of sight**_

**3rd person POV**

Twilight jerked awake, when she felt a sudden flash of magic appearing in her bedroom. "Twilight."

"Huh...?" Twilight's mane was a total mess. When she looked up, she saw no one else, than Princess Celestia standing in her bedroom. "Princess!" Twilight fell off her bed and landed ungracefully on the ground.

"Princess!" Twilight jerked up again. "What are you doing here? Is there a problem?"

"No, don't worry Twilight. I'm sorry for waking you up, after the night you went through."

"N-no, no. It's not a problem at all." Twilight stifled a yawn, which was about to escape her lips. "How can I help you?"

Celestia smiled apologetically. "Twilight, I need to know where Sunset Shimmer and Wing Arc are resting."

Twilight titled her head. "In one of the local inns. I can bring you there, but they're most likely still asleep." Twilight couldn't hold back her yawn anymore. "I'm sorry."

"No Twilight, I shouldn't have woken you up. It's just" she took in a deep breath "I guess I'm just a little excited to speak to your predecessor again."

"My WHAT?!"

"Urgh, five more minutes Twi." Spike rolled over in his bed.

Five minutes later all three were downstairs, with Spike brewing up some tea. "Thank you Spike."

"Not a problem princess." All three of them were placed on the table. Celestia made sure to swallow the tea this time. After putting her cup down, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Sunset Shimmer has been my personal student until shortly before I took you as my personal student.

She was very talented and very eager to learn. However" Celestia took in another deep breath "she was not without flaws. She took on spells she wasn't ready for, because of her overconfidence. She saw friendship nothing more than a waste of time."

"Kinda reminds me of somepony." Spike winked.

Celestia giggled, while Twilight blushed a little in embarrassment. "Yes, in many aspects Twilight and Sunset are similar to each other. Sadly, I misunderstood my student greatly. My teaching methods...frustrated you from time to time, didn't they?"

"No they didn't!" Twilight denied at first. "Well...I-I was young a-and just a little impatient. Yeah, that's it."

"Oh come on Twi." Spike interjected. "You almost threw a tantrum after you warned the princess about the return of Nightmare Moon and she didn't seem to belief you."

"Spike!" Twilight cheeks were getting redder and Celestia laughed wholeheartedly. However, there was a sad undertone in her voice. "Yes, well Sunset Shimmer took it all more personal." Celestia explained. "I found her one night studying magic no pony is allowed to study. She accused me that I was holding her back and demanded that I turn her into an alicorn, so we could rule side by side."

Spike whistled. "Wow. When you said she was overconfident, you weren't kidding."

"Of course I didn't give in to her demands, which made her only angrier. I tried something else in order to calm her down and to make her realize what she was even saying. So I showed her a mirror. A special one, which is actually a portal to another world."

"A portal to another world?!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise and excitement.

Celestia nodded. "It only opens every 30 moons and it is forbidden to use it. Nopony really knows about this other world. Except..." Celestia couldn't say the words.

"...She went through it, didn't she?" Twilight spoke carefully.

Celestia nodded. "She ignored my warnings and walked through it at the same night. I shouldn't have shown her the portal in the first place. She was gone for so many years."

"Ah, it wasn't your fault, Princess." Spike spoke up. "Sounds like she just-"

"That's enough Spike, thank you." Celestia interrupted the young dragon. Celestia finished her tea and stood up. "I need to speak to her personally. There are many things I need to discuss with her. No matter what you say, I'm not without fault. Twilight, if you would be so kind."

"Of course princess."

Twilight was still tired, but very eager to see her predecessor again, now that she knew who she actually was. On the outside ponies were busy with their everyday life and some helped a very eager Pinkie to prepare a party for the two.

They all gasped and bowed deeply, when they saw the Princess of the sun walking out of the library. Twilight eagerly walked towards the inn Sunset Shimmer and Wing Arc stayed for the time being. It didn't take them long to arrive.

The receptionist dropped his newspaper, when he saw the Princess walking into the small inn. "P-princess!" he came over from the reception and bowed deeply. "H-how can I help you?"

"Rise my little pony." She spoke gently. "I simply wish to speak with two of your guests. Sunset Shimmer and Wing Arc. I know they must be tired after their adventure, but it is urgent."

"C-certainly princess. Upstairs, 3rd door to the right."

"Thank you." she spoke gently. It was a little cramped for her but she managed. Arriving at the door, she knocked, but got no answer. She tried again, but there was still no answer.

_They must be fast asleep. I should have just asked Luna to take me into their dreams._

Celestia unlocked the door with her magic and stepped inside. What she found or rather who she didn't find shocked her. The room was a mess. Beds abandoned, here and there a few things fallen over. On the table was a small pile of books along with a few bits and the key to this room.

"They left." she realized. "They left in a hurry."

XIII

"WHAT?!" Pinkie exclaimed as she heard the news. She had been so eager into preparing for the party and now the two most important ponies were gone.

Celestia felt a deep depression crawling up inside her. Spike knew her almost as well as Twilight. He went over to the fridge and took out a piece of cake they just happened to have here.

"Thank you, Spike."

"I don't understand it. Why would they leave the town as soon as possible, when even Princess Celestia comes to congratulate them?!" Rarity exclaimed.

Celestia ate a piece of her cake and prepared herself to tell the story yet a second time.

After she finished Rainbow Dash flew up. "Don't worry princess! We're going to find them."

"Wait, Rainbow. We don't even know where they're gone or if they simply teleported away." Twilight said.

"I think we can minimize the possibility really quickly." Celestia spoke. "I hardly belief they teleported. They must be tired after all they went through. Walking on hoof is out of the question. And if I wouldn't want to talk to my former mentor, I would want to make as much distance to her as possible."

"The train." Twilight realized.

Rainbow took off as soon as she heard that. Minutes later she returned to the library, where her friends and the princess had been waiting.

"They took the train. They're on their way to Dodge Junction."

XIII

**Arc's POV**

I admit buying a ticket to Dodge Junction, stepping outside mid-way and the buying a ticket to Apple Loosa was a good idea to cover our trail. But still...

"Why Apple Loosa? As far as I know there's nothing to get."

"Exactly." Sunset agreed? "Celestia won't expect me to go there. She will very soon realize that I tricked her, but she won't expect me to go into an out of nowhere town that's got nothing special. We wait one or two days, enough for the dust to settle and leave for Manehatten or Filly Delfia, I have yet to decide."

I titled my head. "Not the Chrystal Empire or even Canterlot?" I asked.

"Celestia will be on guard, especially at the most important places in Equestria. Important books can be found in every big city."

I nodded and looked outside of the window of the second train we were in. "Okay, but what about money? It won't last forever."

"Hmph, you think I haven't thought about that? You weren't there, when I sold a few books from the castle in Ponyville. Don't worry your little brain about that, just focus on the task at hand."

_There is nothing to focus on._

"Yeah, I get it. I'm gonna catch some shut eye. Am still tired."

"Wait."

"Huh?"

Sunset walked up to me, her horn glowing. Her magic aura surrounded me, but was gone pretty quickly. "What was that all about?"

She grinned. "A little trick I learned after absorbing the power of the armor. Neither Luna nor Nightmare Moon will be able to enter your dreams now or track you down for that matter."

Wait, she actually thought ahead? "Wow. Pretty neat." I commented.

I slept through the rest of the ride. This whole train changing thing didn't help me at all. Luckily something was wrong, so we would arrive in Apple Loosa in the evening. Plenty of sleep I could catch up.

XIII

Apple Loosa was one thing: hot. I was used to these kinds of things from my two family trips to Egypt. Luckily it was evening, so it wasn't that hot. There's just the thing, when the temperature changes drastically, I get a little headache until I'm used to it.

Sunset didn't seem to have this kind of problem and immediately started walking towards the saloon, in which we would also sleep for the next two days. All of the sudden I started to miss my mp3. Sunset wasn't exactly much of a talker, when it wasn't about something that might be useful to make her become an alicorn.

We kind of stood out. Apple Loosa was a town full of earth ponies, some of them wearing all kind of western hats. One stallion was having a siesta in front of the saloon. If anyone would ask about us, we would be caught really fast.

Inside the saloon it was like in one of those comics I once read. Ponies dancing to music, some playing poker, but most of them just chatting. We walked over to the counter, were a barkeeper was cleaning a glass. "What should it be?"

"Something that's not apple cider." Sunset growled. Doesn't look like she likes apple cider.

"I take the cider." I ordered. Sunset got a glass of water, while I got my cider. Tasted pretty good. It's just hard to use a glass as a pony, when you're not a unicorn. "Is there a room free?" Sunset asked.

"Sure is." the stallion pointed upstairs towards a door. "We take it." Sunset placed a few bits on the counter and walked upstairs. I shook my head and took another sip from my cider. "And here I thought the desert air would be good for her."

"Ya two ain't from around, are ya?" The barpony asked.

"Nope." I shook my head. "Just here on a little vacation for a couple of days."

"Is she always like that?" he asked. I looked after Sunset. "Nah, must be the stress from the travel. Either that or she doesn't like apple cider."

"In that case y'all came into the wrong town." I chuckled. "Yeah, maybe." I finished my drink and walked upstairs. I found Sunset lying on one of the two bets. She was reading a book we took with us from the castle in the Everfree. "I can't belief she was hiding this from me all this time." Oh man, if I wouldn't know it any better, I'd say she was about to swallow the book.

She looked up to me and narrowed her eyes. "And what are you looking at?" she growled. I smiled. "It's just; I've never seen anyone being so absorbed in their studies." She rolled her eyes. Why don't you just mind your own business?"

"My own business?" I deadpanned. "I got nothing to do, you know. There's nothing around this place, besides a desert. The only thing worth mentionable is a tribe of buffalos helping out with apple bucking in exchange for apple pies."

She just continued reading with her book. I rolled my eyes. "I'm gonna look around." I told her before leaving her alone. Wish I'd have some money to actually buy myself something.

Outside there was another wave of heat rushing over me. "Oh man, this heat's killing me." I complained.

"Well ya better get used to it, stranger." a purple mare with a bell as a cutie mark walked up. Her mane was white/pink. "Howdy. Ma name's Bella. Ah'm the teacher in this here lil' town."

"Wing Arc, nice to meet you. And know what? I think I take your advice." Channeling my magic, I changed into my fire form. It immediately became cooler.

"What in tarnation?!" she shouted.

"Ah, much better." I stretched my wings, until I realized this town was made out of wood. "Woops." I stepped away from the building. "Almost set everything on fire." I chuckled.

"What happened to ya?! You're all burning!" she shouted. I shrugged, but gave her a slight grin. "It's my cutie mark." I said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. A small crowd gathered around me, sheriff Silver Star being one of them. "What in tarnation is going on?"

"You tell me, sheriff. I just set my wings on fire. I always do that."

"What the-?!" The crowd started whispering. I rolled my eyes. "It makes the heat more bearable, when I'm in this form 'kay? Don't worry, I change back to normal, when I go inside a building." I did so right now. "See? No fire."

I set them on fire again, causing the ponies to back away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I want to do some sightseeing, 'kay?"

They didn't go away. Frustrated, I took off into the air. Since they were all earth ponies, they couldn't follow me around. The sand though was getting into my eyes, so I needed to land soon after I took off, in order to rub my eyes. I landed inside an apple orchard. Dunno how they were able to grow, unless they used a lot of water on them. How'd they do it without sprinklers anyway?

Oooops, trees. And I'm still on fire. I changed into water. Not the best solution, but it was more bearable than my normal form. Besides, my normal form just looks boring. With that in mind, I finally started to check this town out.

XIII

**General POV**

"Should we send the royal guard after her?" Luna asked her sister. Celestia shook her head at her sister. "No sister. If Sunset Shimmer doesn't want to return, then it is her decision." She replied sadly. Nightmare smiled knowingly to herself. She had seen it all in their memories, anyways.

"Don't worry sis." Nightmare called her over from the table. "She will come back sis." she said with confidence. "What makes you so sure?" Luna asked. Nightmare shrugged. "I've been inside her head. Deep down she regrets her decision. Sadly, she mostly does it because she has seen your other student and how you turned her into an alicorn. She's totally jealous." Nightmare shook her head chuckling.

Luna and Celestia frowned. "In that case, you really should talk to her sister, before anything worse happens." Luna advised, speaking off experience. "I can bring you into her dream tonight."

_Good luck with that. _Nightmare thought. Sunset Shimmer wasn't an idiot. Nightmare knew Sunset stole the power of her armor. It gave her a bunch of new spells at her exposal.

"Ah~ If I had known ice cream is that tasty, I'd have stopped being evil a long time ago." She slurred. Celestia and Luna looked at each other and chuckled. The guards were afraid of their little sister, but all they needed were a few treats to keep her in line.

The guards were less convinced of Nightmare Moon being redeemed, much less was the council. It was a simple argument, Celestia easily won by bringing up Discord's redemption.

_So, according to Arc's memories, Discord is going to betray us. I want to change that, but at the same time he's the one who gives Twilight the final key. You know what? Buck it. Arc is screwing up by simply being here and so do I. And who in their right mind would let anyone steal their magic, if he or she could prevent it?_


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Woo! Done in two writing sessions. And I only wrote one sentence in the first one XD.**_

_**A new job**_

**Arc's POV**

I must smell like apples right now after going through that orchard. I think my water wings heated up, even after I stayed in the shadows of the trees. I had to question the climate in this world. I mean, we were only a few hours by car away from Ponyville. How come it is so freaking hot here?

The smell of apple pies entered my nose. Meh, never was a fan of pies and cakes in general. There're a few exceptions, but it didn't make my mouth water. I soon found the source of the smell. There was a barn and some ponies with carts. They prepared bringing them into town, obviously.

I shrugged them off and walked a sideway back into town. I realized I'd pull too much attention towards me the way I was now. Stupid as I was, I stayed in water form anyway, thinking since this town was more out in nowhere than Ponyville, it'd take a while until Celestia would be informed. I forgot AJ had a cousin in this town.

As soon as I was walking down the road, the townsfolk started staring at me again and were whispering things towards each other and pointing with their hooves at me. I ignored them at my best efforts and looked around. A shop with various cowboy hats caught my attention, so I stopped in front of the window and looked at the various sections of hats.

"Man, now I wish I wouldn't be broke. Although, I don't think I'd be able to keep it on in battle." I muttered, eyeing a black Stetson that had caught my attention. "Jeez, I remember them being way more expensive at my place."

"Howdy mister."

...?

It took me a second to realize I was the one the voice talked to. I turned to my right and found a little red earth pony, female, looking up at me grinning. She had messy orange hair and no cutie mark so far.

"'Sup kiddo. Can I help you?" _50 bucks it is because of my wings._

"What's up with ya wings mister? It's like they're water!" the filly exclaimed. How did I not notice the other adult ponies standing around up until now? I blame the black Stetson.

Instead of telling her, I gently hit her with my right wing, causing her to shriek because of how cold the water was compared to the outside temperature. I laughed as the filly stood there, dripping with water.

"Answer enough?" I smirked. The filly shook off the water and beamed up at me. "That's so cool!" she shouted. I blushed a little at the compliment and scratched the back of my head. "Hehe, thanks kiddo. But my boss has way more awesome skills, than I have."

"Yer boss?" she asked.

"Yup, she's a pretty awesome unicorn, though a little grumpy. But don't tell her I said that to you. She's got a short temper."

"WHO exactly has a short temper Arc?"

_:(_

XIII

**Sunset's POV**

Arc was lying there unconscious, some sparks coming out of his body. I allowed a satisfying smirk to appear on my face. "I...didn't sign up...for this..."

Huh, he wasn't unconscious after all. I picked him up with my magic, putting his face in front me. He was hanging upside down. "Now what have we learned today?"

"Not having an element activated, while making fun of you?" he grinned. My eyebrow twitched and I let him fall down on his head. "OW! Seriously..." He got up slowly, his legs shaking. "You need to loosen up a little."

"And you need to learn to shut up." I retorted. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, as if he was some kind of parent figure looking down at a child, who just doesn't get a lesson inside the head.

"Is there a river nearby?" he asked the townsfolk. One of them pointed towards the direction of where I spotted the apple orchards earlier. "Thanks." He walked off.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice of ya!" the filly spoke up, giving me this silly angry look. The surrounding ponies murmured in agreement. _They obviously don't have a mind of their own._

"He's gonna be fine." I said dismissingly, levitating the book I just bought out of my saddlebag and opening it. I read it, while I was going back to the saloon, but was stopped by some mare standing in front of me. The only thing I remembered about her was her cutie mark: a bell.

"Why did ya do that to him? You hurt him." I rolled my eyes. "I've been holding back." I replied going back into reading the book. Never would have dreamed I would find such an interesting magic book here out in nowhere.

"Hey! Ah'm talking to ya!"

Farm folk, I'll never understand them.

"Wohoo! Back on track!" Arc landed right next to me, overloaded with energy. He rubbed his eyes. "Fuu! I forgot the sand. How the hell am I supposed to fly, when I always get sand in my eyes?"

"How about simply NOT flying?" I suggested.

"I'm kind of too old to get grounded, ya know?"

I ignored his lame joke and simply continued on walking. Behind me, I heard him talking to the rest. "Nah, it's cool folks. That's just how she is."

I arrived 5 minutes later at the saloon and in the room Arc and I shared. I wanted to relax for the rest of the day, when I frowned. I didn't notice it earlier in the dry, hot air, but I had sand inside my fur, especially in my mane. I threw the book and my saddlebags on my bed, before I decided to take a bath. Only that I wouldn't take it so early. There was some kind of commotion outside. I expected it to be Arc, so I walked towards the window and looked. Turned out he wasn't even in this part of the town. The sheriff and some pony with a cowboy head had been thrown outside the bank. I could see it from one of the windows and the glass shards lying on the streets. The two ponies also had some cuts, aside from some bruises.

Out of the bank stepped a group of four cowboy earth ponies. You guessed it: stereotypical villains, colors varying from grey to black, two of them having a beard, one a moustache and all of them grinning like idiots.

"That'll teach y'all a lesson. Nopony messes with the Jones Gang."

"At least the name isn't some name-joke about ponies." I said aloud. "Still, not very creative." Curiosity had gotten the better of me, so I walked downstairs and outside into the crowd.

"Now, if anypony comes in our way" the leader spoke up "well" he grinned and all of them chuckled "let's say, we're gonna have a lot of fun." I was still deciding what to do, when Arc took that decision off from me. In his own stupid, crazy way. I began to suspect Pinkie Pie was his favorite pony.

He was there in his normal form and walked up right in front of the leader. I hissed.

"What do YOU want?"

"I'm standing in your way. So, are we going to have fun now? Play a game? Prank the mayor?"

That stupid grin...

I facehoofed.

_He,...he,...arrgh, forget it!_

"Kid you better get out of my way. You understand?"

**"*BURP*! **Oh man, I was holding that one back all day." I actually believed him. The stallion took a few steps back, before his face turned angry. His goons were grinning a little, while he himself charged at Arc, who jumped back flapping his wings a little. He caused a cloud dust to form, blinding the leader.

The crowd gave him some space to land. I decided to walk up at this very moment.

"You know boss, I could need some exercise."

I looked over to the idiot gang. They weren't really worth my time, but...

"There is a spell I want to try. Leave the leader alone."

"Gotcha! Hell yeah, I'm on FIRE!" With that he changed into, you already guessed it. "Oh come on, you know I had to make this pun."

"Just kill them already!" I shouted, before throwing a barrel with my magic at one of the goons. He was taken by surprise, but managed to jump up and dodged it. He grinned as if he had already won. I mentally rolled my eyes, while freezing the stallion. It had an even greater effect on him, since he was used to the heat in the desert and not the cold of the arctic north. The ice wouldn't be there for long. I didn't even bother covering him completely with it.

I heard a crash somewhere, but didn't bother looking. The leader and the other goon (the third one must have been the one that crashed) were aiming at Arc. The goon threw a lasso at him. He let himself hit by it and as soon as it hit his wings it burned down.

I shot a large fireball at the leader, which hit his flank and singed away his tail. He screamed like a little kid. I teleported next to him and forced him to look into my eyes. "Sleep." And he was out. But this was not the spell I wanted to test on him. I already successfully tested it on myself. No, I wanted to do something else, but first I had a nuisance to get rid of. Arc was busy holding up his second goon, while the one I froze recovered enough to throw his lasso at me and caught me off guard.

He pulled my neck, grinning as if he had already won. "You obviously never fought a unicorn." I picked him up with my magic and rotated him a little in the air until he was at a certain position. Next I picked up the largest rock I could find and threw it at where it hurts a stallion the most. I'm pretty sure it woke up Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna from their slumber.

The stallions in the crowd actually looked like they had sympathy for him, as I threw him away like the garbage he was. I turned around and found Arc using his earth form for once. He was now surrounded by two goons again, although one of them had multiple burns. I shot a quick beam at him, which hit his head and was enough to finish him. Depending on the magic level, a beam could be pretty weak or strong. But don't get me wrong, it was still a rather high class spell, focusing enough magic into that beam, so it would do actual damage. But once you had the hang of it, it was pretty useful.

The last goon was distracted from the other pony falling, so Arc hit him hard on the head. He was bleeding badly and I think I heard something crack. "Just another day of work." Arc said.

He walked up to me, looking around. The ponies were all staring at us their jaws hanging. "You know, it's still hot, but the sand isn't a problem anymore."

I turned towards the leader of the group and grinned. "Sunset, you're scaring me. The last time you grinned that way was before Nightmare Moon sent out her shadow ponies to have "fun" with us."

"You're not too far off with Nightmare Moon."

"Huh?"

I walked up to the gang leader, who was snoring loudly. "You put him asleep? That's your test?"

"No. THIS is the test." I announced. My magic covered the entire body of the thief (sacks of money were laying in front of the bank) and my eyes started to glow blue. I know this, because Arc told me later. My magic remained the same color. "Having a nice dream?" I asked motherly.

"NOW you're seriously scaring the SHIT out of me."

"Let's see...interesting." I mumbled. "And already done. It's time to wake u~up."

The stallion blinked awake, looking around confused. Suddenly he was on edge and stood up, looking around frantically. Fear was written all over his face. "What's going on?! Where am I?! Who are ya?!"

The crowd looked confused at the thief leader as he took a few steps back, very slowly. "No...stay back. LEAVE ME ALONE! Ngh...ngh..." he trembled in fear. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he ran away like all demons of Tartarus were following him.

"A nightmare." Arc realized. "You're letting him having a nightmare." His face looked conflicted. "Not sure whether I should be afraid or intrigued."

"Basically he is sleepwalking. He sees us all, but in a twisted way. He thinks right now he is in a ghost town. We and the townsfolk are the ghosts in his eyes." I explained.

"Wow." Arc blinked. "You know, that was pretty fast. I've read up a little on magic. I still don't get shit, but shouldn't have taken you this a little longer? You're really good." Arc nodded with respect.

"I know I am. But the true reason it went so well is because he's pretty weak minded. Else it might have taken me a minute or two."

Arc gave me that look that said: "Sure. Only a minute or two." However he kept his mouth shut.

"NOOO!" We turned towards the stallion, who was running and looking behind him. He stumbled over the wooden floor and crashed into the wall. He stopped moving, but was still whimpering.

"How long is the spell supposed to last?"

"I have no idea."

"Ah."

The locals all took a few steps back.

XIII

The sheriff (Silver Star) and that pony (AJs cousin according to Arc) came around during the middle of the fight and saw us dealing with those idiots. We were now standing inside the sheriff's office, while Silver Star was locking away the gang. The leader eventually came around, but one look of me was enough to make him cringe. It was evening outside, so Arc didn't bother anymore changing into one of his elements.

"Welp, thank ya kindly for helping us. Those muggers were a real nuisance, I tell ya." He placed himself behind his desk. "I just don't know how to thank ya properly."

Arc nudged me and pointed towards the blackboard. I looked at it and smiled. "It looks like it wasn't a waste of time coming here after all." I levitated down a few wanted posters and placed them in front of the sheriff. He paled at the sum he had to pay. It wasn't even a fortune. Looks like this town just doesn't have that much money.

XIII

20 minutes later after all the formalities were done, we walked out of the office and I let have Arc a bit of the money. It would just look suspicious if we would continue getting money from me.

"So, we're part-time bounty hunters now?" Arc grinned.

"Focus. It was just an opportunity. After our little show here, it won't take long for Celestia to track us down. We'll be leaving tomorrow. Same as last time. Las Pegasus, but our actual destination is Manehatten."

"That will be expensive. Oh well, guess we have it covered this time."

"You" a deep voice called out. We stopped in our tracks and turned around, finding a bison with a feather behind his ear approaching us. "You the pony who can enter dreams?" [Sorry if I'm bad at stereotypical Indian talk]

"...Yes, I can. Problem?" Arc changed to fire. "This is gonna be a though one." he muttered.

"Please, I do not wish conflict." The bison replied. "My shaman is haunted by bad spirits. Plaguing him with nightmares. Making him insane. You need banish them. Please fiery one."

Arc and I raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that Luna's job? Dealing with nightmares?" Arc asked.

"Shaman foresaw your coming fiery one. Said you can overcome trials of caves of the old. Said you can get what you need to banish bad spirits."

...

"Sounds to me like he's on drugs." I commented. The Indian looked disappointed.

"You know Sunset, we could check it out. It may help us out...in what we're looking for. I mean, the Pony of Shadows story turned out to be true too." Then he frowned. "I just hope we won't have to fight in the dream realm again. My neck still hurts from time to time from that blast."

I thought about it. On the one hoof, it sounded like a complete waste of time of an idiot who smoked the wrong stuff. On the other hoof, Arc had a point.

"Okay, but if this turns out to be the cause of drugs, you can say goodbye to your tail."

"Thank you, fiery one."

"And stop calling me that! My name is Sunset Shimmer! Get it into your thick skull!" I snarled. "Now lead the way."

XIII

**Night's POV**

_"I got a hangover~,_

_wohoooooooo~oh~,_

_I've been drinking too much~,_

_for suuuuuuuuuu~uure~!"_

"What are you singing?" I heard my biggest sis calling out to me. I turned around smiled. "A song I found in Arc's memories. Catchy, huh?" We were in the gardens. I've been lying there, watching the animals. Unlike my sisters I had no royal duties or anything. The rest of the ponies didn't like me anyway and I'm pretty sure there's gonna be a murder attempt anytime soon. Meh, I may be weaker, but that's exactly why I'm looking forward to it. I can't let Arc beat me in our 1v1.

"Moon." Celestia placed herself next to me, looking into the sky. "Please tell me, does Sunset Shimmer hate me?" she asked.

"You know that's an invasion of privacy." I rubbed my forehead. "I think I spent too much time in Arc's head. But still, do you REALLY want to know? I'm not really proud of copying every moment of their lives into my head." I told her, while looking at her sternly. She just gave me her usual motherly look and nodded. I frowned and looked off to the distance myself.

"Well she does miss you. But she suppresses the feeling. The biggest thing I felt was jealousy of Twilight and the feeling of being replaced as I already told you. As for hating you? I have a feeling she's more afraid of you. But I can't really deny it. She does hate you. She thinks you've been holding her back in her studies and treated her not fairly. Your trolling, as Arc would put it, annoyed the shit out of her. That one day she snapped you reminded her of the other ponies at her orphanage. Jeez, talk about paranoid." I shook my head in order to get the memory out of my head.

I looked up to Celestia, who had a tear running down her cheek. She was looking at the setting sun. "Am I really that bad of a pony?"

"Nah, you just don't know when to stop trolling ponies."

All of the sudden Luna teleported in front of us. She looked a little distressed. "What's up sis? You look like something got out of Tartarus."

Luna shook her head. "It is about thy old student Tia."

_Aaaand here we go again. I swear she switches between normal talk and that old stuff at least every hour._

"What is it, Luna? Did something happen to her?" Celestia stood up, worried. "I have been in the dream realm early, so I could find the two as soon as possible. They were not asleep yet, but I could see it."

"See what?" both me and Celly asked.

"A shield. A shield to protect one from invading dreams. On both of them."

Celestia's eyes widened. "I-I never taught Sunset Shimmer any spell like the one you're describing. I can't even perform one myself."

"Must have gotten the info in the castle." I suggested. "Wasn't inside her memories, when I checked."

"We have to find her Tia." Luna went on. "If she continues this path, she will no doubt fall someday to her own dark desires."

"If that didn't already happen." I spoke up. I stretched my legs and continued. "I haven't told you Celly, but Sunset wants to show you that she can reach her goal without you. And as past experiences have shown us, you know where it ends. Unwanted children!" I cheered. "I mean, I'm born out of jealousy and hatred, which practically makes Luna my mother. Who knows what'll happen to her?"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Celestia demanded to know, glaring at me. I glared back. "Because I didn't know she could (would) put a bucking mind shield around herself and her sidekick." I retorted back, annoyed. "I thought it'd be a nice little dream talk and happy ending."

Celestia took in a deep breath. "Forgive me. It seems my emotions are getting the better of me. Luna, could you see where they are?"

"A desert, sister. But I didn't see any town nearby. They were walking into the desert, following a bison."

"I see." Celestia closed her eyes. "She bought a ticket to Dodge City. Please tell your Night Guard to not harm her or her friend."

"Do not worry dearest sister. My guards shall find her."

Yup, the hunt is on. Good luck guys. You're gonna need a hell lot of it. "Come on, don't make that face sis. Let's grab some cake and you'll be fine in no time."

"Maybe later." And with that, Celly left me and Luna alone in the garden as we stared after her.

"Did she just declined to get some cake?" I asked.

"She must have deep feelings for her former student." Luna suspected. "Yeah, but still..." I trailed off.

_Why do I have the feeling I am not the only one hiding something? Something big, I mean._


	10. Chapter 10

**Angry Spirit**

**(Warning: tons of filler-chapter. I'll start writing the next one right away)**

**Sunset's POV**

Since it seemed we would be walking for a while, I decided to satisfy my curiosity. "I wanted to ask you earlier, but what was that police report about?" Immediately he let his head hung and let out a long sigh. "Hey. I'm not pestering you about your past." he complained.

"What do you mean? You probably already know everything about me."

"Er, no? How much attention did you pay while watching the movie? Or did you skip the entire part Celestia was in?"

I gave him a confused look. Shouldn't he know everything?

"Look, the only things I know about you are: you were Celestia's student, then you quit and went through the mirror, you're power hungry and that's it. Everything else is fandom speculation! That's why a lot of people didn't like the movie for the lack of explanation."

_Maybe I should have paid more attention. Would have saved me a lot of unnecessary worrying._

"Hmph. You didn't seem to mind that much, when we faced her."

He let out another sigh and rolled his eyes. "I still don't like talking about it. Look can we agree on not pestering each other on our pasts, especially with someone listening?" he pointed towards the buffalo. Said buffalo was simply looking ahead. He couldn't understand half of the things we were talking about anyways.

"I doubt he knows what a police report is. Fine. Have it your way for now." I waved off, not minding that much. "Hey, while we have the chance, how the heck did you find me? I mean, you find yet another place and it turns out almost as boring as the other one you were before."

It may look confusing, but it was easy to understand for me. You mention other world, new world etc one time in front of just one person (or in front of any sentient creature in case of Equestria) and you can get in all kind of trouble. I was sure Celestia eventually would be able to trace me down even towards the buffalos and mentioning other world might just give her the wrong idea.

"Simple, I checked for anything unnatural with a spell and found you. I guess luck was another reason, I mean I didn't chose to teleport into your city."

"Uh huh." he nodded.

"We're here." the buffalo announced. We looked in front of us and found a small, Indian-like village. The second we entered, buffalos started shooting us glances and whispered something among them. I didn't listen closer. The buffalo lead us towards a specific tent. It didn't look any different from the other tents. The inside didn't look anything too special. A few green and brown blankets, there was some general stuff for living lying in a corner (pots, some filled with vegetables or something else) and a few masks. What really caught my attention was the buffalo sweating bullets under the blanket. His face looked like it was in pain and I could see him twitching every now and then.

"That the dude? Well he looks like he's having a bad dream." Wing Arc commented, coming closer to the guy on the ground. I did the same and examined him. From the outside it looked like he was just having a shitty dream. Nevertheless, I decided to use my new powers to look inside of his head. It wasn't even necessary. A normal scan would have shown too that he was messed up with. "Now what do we have here?" I asked, smirking.

"What is it?" I heard Arc asking.

"Something is messing around. Hmm, I think I found-" Before I could finish the sentence, a light green/white light emitted off the buffalo. "What...is this?" The buffalo who brought us here asked, afraid of the phenomena.

"I have no idea. But I like it."

"I can see where this is going." Arc rolled his eyes. "So, you got an idea how we get it out?" he asked.

"Well if it really is a spirit, than I might need to experiment a little and see what- or we wait until it decides to come out itself." The energy was gathering above the shaman and quickly formed into a ghost like snake.

"WATCH OUT!" Arc pushed me out of the way before the snake could bite me. We shattered some pots, while the ghost snake literally ate dirt. Instead of attacking us again, it flew out. "After it!" I shouted, throwing Arc off from me. Said pegasus flew above me outside and chased the snake thing. The buffalos were screaming random words of panic, while I ran as fast as I could after it. Arc managed to get in front of the thing with his wind abilities, cutting its way short. It turned around, only to come face to face to me.

"Poniessssssssssssssssssss!" It hissed.

"Actually I'm...never mind." Arc cut himself off. "Hey, which element do you use against ghosts?"

"Try light or darkness!" I shot my light beams at the thing to which 1 out of four hit. The thing was pretty agile, as you can guess from a snake. This time I could see its attack coming and dodged with a little teleport. Actually, I didn't directly dodge, Arc managed to get a hit on the back of the big snake's head. The thing hissed angrily and caught him with its tail, trying to strangle him to death. He visibly panicked, but I managed to get him out of there with another beam.

The snake hissed again and dropped him to the ground. He was trying to catch his breath by inhaling air as fast and often as possible. It looked like he was going crazy to be honest.

I charged up for another spell, when the thing let out an annoying high pitched hiss, making it impossible to focus on anything.

"No one breakssssssssssssss the traditionsssssssssssssssssssssssssss!" It hissed before disappearing in a gust of wind, leaving us and a bunch pretty dumbfounded villagers.

XIII

The chief of the tribe was sitting with us together in the tent of the shaman, who woke up with what seemed to be a migraine. He also drank something I actually don't want to know, even now, what he was drinking.

"Thank you fiery one and ape one."

I sighed. "For the last time my name is- wait. Ape one?" I snorted and looked over to Arc. "Yeah, yeah, we all had a good laugh on the inside joke. And dude, the race is called human. While we're at it, how the fuck do you know about us?"

The chief obviously didn't know what was going on, but didn't interrupt any of it. "I foresaw your coming in a dream."

"Why am I not surprised?" both of us ponies said at the same time.

"I also saw your future." he said.

"Oh?" I said with mild interest. "Spoiler alert." Guess who said that.

...

Okay if I would have stuck to my original plan, I would have used that line too. How come I remember that detail from that stupid movie?

"The future is not set in stone, young ones. I saw many futures, yet not the paths which lead to them."

"That is an interesting ability, but can we get on topic? What was that snake?" I asked.

"Indeed great shaman." the chief agreed. "There is a great deed to banish this evil spirit. We need to know how to defeat it."

"Beating the crap out of it seemed to work somehow." Arc mentioned unnecessary. I hit his head. "Shut up and listen."

The shaman took in a deep breath and let out a depressed sigh. "It was a raging spirit, I belief it was one of our ancestors." The chief gasped. Arc raised an eyebrow and titled his head. "Until the Appleloosians arrived, it was tradition for us to- urrgh." He cramped up all of the sudden.

"Shaman! What is wrong?" the chief asked worried. The shaman placed himself on the "bed" and took in some deep breaths. "I am sorry. I need...rest." And he was out.

"So much for the conversation." Arc commented.

XIII

We were now sitting outside around a fire. Actually I just recently joined them, because I scanned the mind of that shaman one more time. "Okay, that snake definitely didn't return. I gave him an...interesting dream to say at least."

"Canterlot high?" Arc asked. "Tch, shut up." _I really should think a little bit more about things._

He laughed a little, but then got serious. "So, the dude said that it was one of your ancestors who got a little mad. And from what he was able to tell us next, it most likely had something to do with how you used to stampede? Run? Anyways, where the town's folk planted their apple trees, you used to run over from what I recall."

"How do you know?" the chief asked.

_You just dug your own grave._

"Heard it from the folks in town." he waved off. "I know some guys get really pissed when their children don't hold up traditions, but is that really the reason someone from the dead would come back and throw a tantrum?"

"What a way to put it." I commented, placing myself next to him. "But he's right. There has to be some explanation: a magical artifact, a spell that went wrong, sabotage, somepony with ill intention towards your tribe, the list is endless. Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with...your shaman kind of abilities."

"Just admit that you know jack shit about- OW!"

_Someday Arc. Someday...grr. You're so lucky I need you._

"ANYWAYS, is there anything which might cause this kind of problem we have at our hooves here?"

The chief closed his eyes and thought, letting out hmm sounds for what felt like forever. "I cannot think of anything. The shaman might know something-"

"Perfect. Give me 5 minutes."

"What are you doing?" the chief asked.

"Entering his dreams, what else? He's the only source of information we have and I don't have that much time on my hooves." I said and left for the shaman.

XIII

**Arc's POV**

"And there she goes. Don't worry she'll let him live. I think." I told the chief and let out a sigh. "Man, I'm not ready for another all nighter."

"Your friend seems to be rather eager to help us. The fiery one is indeed very selfless."

_Must...resist...laughing...!_

"Ehh, I don't know Sunset personally that long. Calling us friends is a little much at our state of relationships. We're still getting to know each other." _Not to mention we don't entrust each other with our pasts._

"Aside from that, she's my boss. I doubt we'll get into the friends thing very soon."

"She is your chief?" he asked.

"Well yeah." I shrugged. "See my cutie mark? I'm sure you already noticed, but my powers are not something your everyday pegasus has." I showed him, by changing into water. The chief's eyes widened, if ever so slightly. "I see. Your ancestors surely blessed you."

"Tch, don't remind me of my family. My dad and I didn't get along the last days I was with them until I left my home. For the rest of my family, it's been a while since I actually spoke to any of them. But enough of that. Sunset found out about my specialty and offered me to come with her. Adventures sounded nice and I was still upset of my last argument with my father, so I decided: Screw it all, time to do something interesting in my life. The downside of course is I could die from that adventure."

I chuckled dryly, while the chief nodded. "A life full of adventure is indeed dangerous. But why? Why having this life?" he asked.

"Well for me as I said, it's better than my old life and as for Sunset...let's just say she's looking for something. Sorry, if I talk any more, my head's gonna pay the price."

"Hmm. She seeks something? I and my tribe would be very obliged to help the fiery one."

...

"Why's that? Your shaman said he saw us coming here, but why are you ready to help her? You barely know her."

"Our shaman is not the first one who foresaw her coming. It is said, in the time of great need the fiery one would come and safe our tribe. And it is obvious the time has come."

"Uh huh...I'm not really into prophecies, I actually hate them. Telling you, you HAVE to do this and that, just 'cause someone says so, it really gets on my nerves."

"Hmm? Why-?"

"Arc! Turn your lights on! We're walking through the dark!" Sunset called out. I let out a sigh and my head hung. Nevertheless, I changed into light. "I knew it. Sorry, gotta go. Where are we heading?" I called out.

"Something called the cave of ancestors. Normally only shamans are allowed in there, but we got an exception."

_Like you would actually listen to those rules._

"The cave of ancestors?!" The chief exclaimed. "B-but-" he stuttered, but was cut off.

"I told you, I got special permission. Come on Arc, we have a tight schedule."

_Come on! You're acting as if Princess Celestia herself is chasing us in person, eh, pony. Screw it, I'm gonna continue using human terms._

"So, which way?"

XIII

We had been walking for some time; well I was flying a little, since there was no wind which could throw sand into my eyes, when something came into my mind.

"The chief really looked scared for some reason. Do you know why?"

"For starters only shamans are allowed in there. Another reason is, without permission of a shaman, you'll get cursed."

"Always with the classics, huh?"

"There's another reason." she told me from down there. "Nopony has gone in there for two hundred summers, which I assume are two hundred years, because it is apparently dangerous to do some training in there. Whatever training shamans go under."

I gave her a "mhm" and concentrated on flying ahead. "When do we know we're there anyway? All I see is desert and a cactus here and there."

"Don't worry, I memorized the location. It's hard to explain without seeing it. Just fly straight ahead and don't change your element."

"Got it."

...

And we had no conversation topic again. At this rate I was about to fall asleep, so I searched for a topic to go on. I thought about asking about Sunset's past, because hey, who isn't interested? But then I remembered that we promised not to annoy each other with asking about that topic. So, I came up with another one.

"Do you think Celestia will send the elements after us?" I asked.

"Why'd you bring that up?" she asked a little annoyed.

"I'm trying to stay awake. It's not been that long, since our last all nighter."

Sunset shrugged. "Tartarus, how should I know? Though, you're not too far off. I don't think she'll waste any guards on us and Twilight is her pet anyways."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Wow, am surprised I never heard that insult. But she IS acting like a lost puppy sometimes, ain't she?"

From there on out we kept insulting the mane six just for fun. I am a fan of them and the show, but that doesn't mean I can't make fun of them. At that time we really convinced ourselves that they would be the once being send after us. I guess we had this one wrong.

XIII

**3rd person POV**

Captain Dusk looked at the sorry excuses of guards or rather ex-guards. It had been only a matter of time, but eventual a group of ponies snapped and attacked the little filly, known as Nightmare Moon. They were sorry excuses for multiple reasons. First off, it had been a battle of ten against one alicorn filly, which was very far away from reaching her full potential, not to mention she was still weakened from her previous battle. 5 of the now prisoners were unicorns, two pegasi and three earth ponies.

Another reason they were sorry excuses was that they had actually the guts to say that Princess Luna plots something against her sister Princess Celestia. The two older alicorns arrived at the scene of the battle, when the last one was standing.

Nightmare Moon or Nights as she liked to be called went out of this battle relatively unharmed, due to using her illusions. In the end she said it had been a nice "exercise".

It didn't help Captain Dusk Shine one bit about her wariness of the filly, but she trusted the judgement Princesses of the sun and moon.

The bat-mare shook her head clear. Now was no time for further talking to the traitors. She had been given a task, which was to find the mare and the stallion that defeated the nightmare filly, when she was at her strongest. The problem was: half the ponies she wanted to take with her were now behind bars. Replacements were enough available, but her squad was not big to begin with.

She had four other bat ponies with her, with two of them being recruits. Her second in command would handle guarding the castle at night.

The three other ponies accompanying the captain were Lieutenant Bat Eye, Sergeant Dark Wing and Recruit Dust Shine, the Captain's younger sister. In case you're wondering, the other two are stallions. Just wanting to make things clear.

The Captain went one last time over the profiles she was given, granted it was not much. Sunset Shimmer had been Princess Celestia's personal student before the newly crowned Twilight Sparkle. Since she was also one of the ponies who defeated Nightmare Moon, she has to be pretty strong. Princess Celestia herself described Sunset Shimmer as very talented. Plus according to the profile, she had a knack for inventing new spells.

_"Indeed." Celestia chuckled. "Sunset Shimmer even managed to teach myself a very advanced spell. Two actually, but she was really proud about the one spell."_

Dusk shivered at the memory. Princess Luna warned the Captain that Sunset Shimmer might be very reluctant into coming with the guards and even act hostile. Reading further the file, Sunset Shimmer became a little too passionate about her special ability. Actually that was an understatement. She wanted to become a Princess! The Night Guard sure would have their hooves full this unicorn.

On a side note, it said in the profile that she is an orphan. It might come in useful later for a psychological profile.

As for the rest of the profile...it was **blackened. **For some reason not everything about Sunset Shimmer was given to Dusk Shine, which was more than just a little annoying.

As for Wing Arc

He proved to be real trouble. There were simply _no bucking records about him. _A very easy conclusion was that he simply came from oversees and didn't check in with a passport, but simply went his way. It was pretty easy to do this in Equestria. But surely a pony with his special ability should have attracted a lot of attention, no matter where he lived. Unfortunately, a proper check would take some time.

Still, the simple fact almost nothing is known about him was unnerving at least. The only things really known about him are his special ability, which could also be used against him, and the fact he didn't hesitate to make jokes about anypony.

"Question marks, question marks and guess what? More question marks." Dusk Shine muttered annoyed. "I'm supposed to bring two ponies to the castle and they just might so put up resistance. Why didn't the princesses give me all the information?"

"Where's the fun in solving a mystery that's already been solved?" Dusk Shine froze as she heard the voice. She slowly turned around and found the nightmare filly smiling up at her.

"P-princess." Dusk saluted, despite her doubts.

"Jeez, loosen up Captain. After trying this eternal night thing and the thing with the nightmares, I hardly deserve any kind of respect." the filly said, eyes half closed and looking to the side. "You know, Celly even won't tell Luna everything about Sunset Shimmer. And although I've been inside her head, I can't find any memory telling me what she's hiding."

"W-wait. You've been inside her head?"

"Yup! And inside Arc's too. Used their memories against them in the fight, you know, but didn't work. Especially with Arc. And no, I won't tell you anything."

"What? Why?! You're only supporting those who want to see you dead!" Dusk exclaimed. "So what? More training for me. Arc and I are having a face off the next time we meet and I don't wanna fall behind him. Besides, he's my friend. You just don't tell everypony your friend's secret."

...

"Besides, the info I got won't help you one bit. It's pretty obvious Sunset is after power, thinking she can become an alicorn, when she manages to gather enough. It's just Sombra all over again." Nightmare rolled her eyes. "Hmm, know what? I guess I can tell you one thing that might be useful."

"You will?"

"Yeah, 'cause it's not really a secret. It's about Arc's motive for helping Sunset."

"...!"

Nightmare smiled at Dusk's expecting expression. "It's funny really. Arc just used the opportunity to escape his boring life. He may has his own believes and morals, but I'm sure he would gladly challenge any of you guys, if Sunset tells him to do so. Hehe, after all..." Nightmare walked aside from Dusk "Arc plans on _challenging Celestia._"

"W-what?! Why would he do that? Stop making those bad jokes!"

"Bad jokes? Ask Arc, when you want to hear bad jokes. It's not like he hates Celly or anything. But he has no respect for her either.

I think I'll leave it at that. Good luck Captain. You'll need it. And do me a favor. Tell them I said hi."

XIII

Dusk looked around the ponies she was taking with her. Her sister seemed to be extremely excited, while the other two bat-ponies patiently waited for instructions. A spell upon the armor made them all look the same. It was a really nice safety measurement.

"All right, listen up. We have the order to "convince" a unicorn and a pegasus to come with us to the princesses."

"Aww, THAT'S this VERY IMPORTANT mission?" her sister complained.

"Shut up and listen, soldier! It's the princesses' order to bring those two back unharmed, unless they put up resistance, which they most likely will. Now, target number one, which is also our main target is a unicorn by the name of Sunset Shimmer. She has yellow fur, red/yellow fiery mane and her cutie mark looks like a sun. Her talent is magic and one important thing: she's Princess Celestia's former student."

"What?! I mean like WHAAAAAAT?! I thought Princess Twilight Sparkle was Princess Celestia's student!" Dust exclaimed everyponies thoughts.

"Apparently she was her student before Princess Twilight Sparkle. Moreover if Princess Twilight would still be a unicorn, it is safe to assume the two would be equally matched."

"Asking for permission to speak, Captain." Bat Eye asked.

"Permission granted, Lieutenant."

"Madam, if the unicorn is so skilled, why don't we take a unicorn guard with us?"

"Because the idiots I wanted to take with us, decided to do some treason and are now in jail. As for the rest, as you know, there's still an investigation going on, seeing if there are more traitors amongst our ranks. So, we just have to put the magic suppressor on her horn, in case she puts up a fight. But we need to be careful. The mare is known for having a knack in inventing new spells. Who knows with what she might hit us.

As for the other pony, he's a pegasus with a white fur and blond name. At least that's what he normally looks like."

"So, he likes to dye his fur?" Dust asked without permission again. Dusk has long given up on trying. The only reason her sister didn't get kicked out yet, was because her older sister didn't mind and thus didn't report anything. Her sister showed potential and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"No, but I wish he would. It would be less troublesome, than we're dealing with. First, this is a drawing of his cutie mark." The Captain pulled it out and showed it to her subordinates, who took a look at it.

"Captain, may I speak?" Dark Wing asked.

"Go on, Sergeant."

"I honestly don't see what is so special about his cutie mark. Does it mean he's a talented or fast flyer?"

"Unfortunately, no. According to Princess Luna, his mark allows him to turn his wings into an element, for example he can set them on fire."

"Cool~"

"When he changes into an element, his looks change too. Also as long as he's on fire, fire magic and anything else fire related will heal him, while you can hurt him with water. Try to use this general knowledge, if it comes to a fight. Another thing I should mention is that there're no records about him. The investigations are still going on, but ask around anyway.

Okay, according to our information the two are currently in Dodge City for reasons unknown. Let's move out!"

Nightmare Moon watched the four fly away. She giggled to herself; excited as she was wondering how this hunt would end.

XIII

Back with Arc and Sunset, the mare called out to the stallion. "We're here!"

"Huh?" Arc looked around, not finding anything that really stood out. He had been so bored, he eventually started counting cacti. He was at 78 with the three in the area. "This is it? I don't see a rock or anything that could hide a cave." He called down. Sunset shook her head. "Just stay where you're. I know what to do."

Sunset walked directly under the pegasus, who watched her curiously. She scratched the ground a little bit with her hooves. Frowning she took a few steps, before scratching again, like Zecora did, when she was introduced. After five more minutes she finally seemed to have found what she was looking for. Her horn glowed up all of the sudden. For the next few seconds nothing happened, until the ground began to shake slightly and gave in, in front of her. A huge square shaped hole was now in front of her. For F's sake, Arc made the door opening sound from the Zelda games.

"The buffalos tended to stomp very hard to the ground in order to open this passage." Sunset explained. "They did an awfully lot in order to hide this. I wonder what we'll find inside."

"I just hope the ceiling isn't gonna fall on our heads. We're here how long? Not even a day and we're already exploring some new ruins."

"Endure it. I can always dump you back on your place if you want."

"Sheesh, you sure are energetic, when it comes to...someone's here."

Wing Arc turned around, glaring at the direction where he could make out the shadow.


End file.
